Dispatching portable X-ray and ultrasound techs by modality

A mobile lab can send most phlebotomists to most draws. A mobile radiology company can't. The tech who shoots a portable chest X-ray at a skilled nursing facility may not be the one who can run a venous Doppler, and neither may be the one who runs EKGs. Before dispatch can think about distance or timing, it has to know who can do the exam.

Send the wrong tech and you get a wasted trip and an exam still undone. Setting up techs, clients and routes for portable X-ray and ultrasound work starts there.

Start with modality

Modality is the kind of imaging a tech is trained and credentialed to perform: for a mobile company, X-ray or ultrasound. Radiologic technologists and sonographers train and credential separately, and many techs on a mobile team cover more than one. EKG isn't imaging, but many mobile X-ray companies send EKGs with the same crews, so it belongs on the same skill list. Whatever your mix, the exam on the order has to go to a tech who performs it.

That only works if each tech's modality is recorded in one place and kept current. A spreadsheet of who does what on one dispatcher's desktop goes stale the first time someone gets cross-trained. In Dependable Dispatch, modality is recorded on the tech's profile. The board and the map don't show it, so the dispatcher assigning an imaging exam checks the profile, and the profile is the record that stays current.

Set up each client for the work it sends

A nursing facility ordering a chest X-ray shouldn't scroll past lab draw types to find it. Let the client's setup decide what its order form shows:

• Order types for that client's work. Imaging clients get imaging types, lab clients get lab types, and a client that sends both gets both.
• Imaging requests a lab order never needs, such as a CD of the images or an EKG added to the visit.
• One portal either way. Facility staff place orders, track status and see only their own orders.

Whatever the form looks like, an imaging order isn't ready to dispatch until it names the exam and views, the reason for the exam and the ordering provider. The tech needs the first, and the radiologist and your billing need the rest. If a facility leaves them out, catch it at intake, not at the bedside.

Imaging crews work differently on the road

A phlebotomist's day ends at the lab with a cooler of specimens. A portable X-ray tech's day is built around the equipment in the van, and the exam happens at the bedside. That changes the route in three ways:

• There's no specimen drop. The dispatch record that matters is when the tech was en route, on site and departed. The images go to your PACS and the read comes back from your radiologists outside the dispatch system, so dispatch timestamps cover the visit, not the report.
• The van often belongs to the company. Many imaging crews drive a company vehicle and don't claim personal mileage. In Dependable Dispatch, techs whose profile is marked X-ray or ultrasound aren't asked to approve miles on their route. The miles are still recorded, and dispatch can still see and edit every leg.
• Lab stop counts don't transfer. A portable unit has to come off the van, get through the building and go back on, and an ultrasound takes longer than a venipuncture. A route sized like a lab route will run long. Size imaging routes on time per exam, not on stop count.

One board for lab and imaging

For a company that runs both service lines, the bigger decision is whether they share a system. Two systems mean two schedules, two client logins and two sets of reports, and a facility that orders both has to remember which one to call.

Once modality lives on each tech's profile and each client's form fits its work, imaging orders run through the same dispatch board and tech map as lab orders, and imaging techs work the same route on their phone.

What separates imaging-ready dispatch

Two things separate dispatch built for imaging from a lab tool with an X-ray order type bolted on: whether modality is recorded in the system itself, and whether order setup and mileage fit crews who send different exams and drive company vans. Ask a vendor to show you a tech's modality on record, an imaging client's order form, and an X-ray tech's route with no mileage prompt.

Our mobile radiology software page covers the imaging setup. The buyer's checklist has the full list of questions to ask any vendor.

Related reading

• Choosing dispatch software for mobile lab, imaging and home health: a buyer's checklist
• Specimen chain of custody for mobile phlebotomy