Defining parameters

For Busch, a critical aspect of measurement is developing and defining parameters, which can be helpful in benchmarking: comparing your department's performance with similar departments across the region to see how you stack up, such as Busch described in an article in RöFo: Fortschritte auf dem Gebiete der Röntgenstrahlen und der Nuklearmedizir earlier this year (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20143285).

For his department, Busch and his economist developed a system in which every exam is assigned a number of working points. The more complicated the exam, the more points it gets. The team then measures effectiveness by determining cost per point, in terms of staff time and material. With this, they can get a handle on their productivity and costs and be better able to see where they rank among other departments in Europe.

Busch says one of the most important results of this process was a reorganization of his team, shifting from grouping staff by modality to grouping by location.

"In former times, we had a team for CT, a team for MRI, a team for X-rays," he says. "Now we have a group of people that are responsible for one floor. We are structured more by location and not imaging method. Why? They can use better their workload if they're flexible."

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