National Decision Support Company expands customer base

ANDOVER, Mass., Dec. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- National Decision Support Company (NDSC) announced expansion of its growing customer base. More than 25 major healthcare providers and radiology practices have now demonstrated their commitment to delivering higher quality imaging services through implementing ACR Select.

Healthcare providers have embraced ACR Select, embedded within their Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems to provide real-time guidance and education to the ordering physician at the point of order. ACR Select helps these physicians choose the most appropriate imaging study for patients, and facilitates consultation with radiologists where required.

Within radiology practices, ACR Select is used as a physician engagement tool and allows the practice to play an active role in the utilization management strategy for the providers they serve in anticipation of value-based payment models. Radiology practices have also integrated ACR Select with their Radiology IT platforms to provide guidance at the point of scheduling of imaging services.

"In addition to leading the transformation to value-based imaging, ACR Select is viewed as a valuable tool in the event of Medicare Recovery Audits. Having a structured reason for exam as provided by ACR Select ensures the imaging procedure is based on a valid and defensible reason for the exam. This provides additional protection in the event of such an audit," said Bob Cooke, VP of Marketing and Strategy, NDSC.

• HealthEast, the largest health care provider in the Twin Cities' East Metro area of Minnesota, is implementing ACR Select within their order entry workflow across the inpatient, outpatient, and emergency department care settings. "We were previously using a solution to obtain prior-authorizations for high-tech exams for outpatients, however, with our planned transition to Epic next year, it made sense to be consistent in our approach to quality and implement ACR Select for inpatient and emergency imaging as well," said Brian Patty M.D., Chief Medical Informatics Officer, HealthEast. "The ACR Select approach to integration with Epic offered us a simple way to adapt our existing workflows across every care setting and integrated access to performance improvement metrics."
• Centers for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI), a large chain of diagnostic imaging centers providing service across the mid-west, Washington and Florida, has also implemented ACR Select. "We have been using the ACR Appropriateness Criteria for some time now and found it to be an incredible tool for quality improvement," said Liz Quam, Executive Director, CDI Quality Institute. "When it was time to update our approach, it was a natural evolution for us to contract directly with National Decision Support Company." 
• Suburban Radiologic Consultants (SRC), a Minneapolis based physician-owned radiology practice providing service to Allina Health and Fairview Health Services, and six metro outpatient imaging centers, is also implementing ACR Select. "ACR Select is a powerful physician engagement tool," said Jim Tierney, CEO, SRC. "In addition to being able to track quality, our practices can engage and educate our referrers, and we are taking an active role in driving quality across all care settings we serve". 

"ACR Select has been integrated with all major EHR platforms, and we continue to expand our presence across the various imaging IT platforms," said Michael Mardini, CEO, NDSC.

"We've seen incredible interest and uptake of our solution at all levels of the market," explained Mardini. "Driving towards appropriate imaging enables better health care services and patient outcomes. ACR Select is the cornerstone of delivering value-based imaging services, and we are proud to be working with the American College of Radiology in driving that transformation."

National Decision Support Company will be demonstrating its latest developments and offering free trial registration to the ACR Select portal at RSNA 2013, Booth #1748, South Hall.

About National Decision Support Company

National Decision Support Company (NDSC) is the exclusive distributor of national standards clinical decision support (CDS) imaging guidelines. NDSC provides the technical platform, support, and licensing of digitally consumable CDS that continuously educates providers regarding the latest evidence-based approach to medicine without disrupting the doctor-patient relationship or delaying needed care. For more information, visit http://www.NationalDecisionSupport.com.

About ACR Select

ACR Select, provided by National Decision Support Company, is the complete web service version of American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness Criteria® (AC). ACR AC is a comprehensive national standards clinical decision support database that provides evidence-based guidance for the appropriate utilization of all medical imaging procedures. More than 300 volunteer physicians, representing more than 20 radiology and non-radiology specialty organizations, participate on the ACR AC expert panels, continuously updating these nationally transparent guidelines, and providing real-time access to the latest medical imaging procedure guidance. The ACR Select platform can be easily integrated with computerized ordering and electronic health record (EHR) systems so healthcare organizations can effortlessly consume ACR AC guidelines and ensure that the right patient gets the right scan for the right indication. For more information, visit http://www.ACRselect.org.

SOURCE National Decision Support Company