The phrase "we are implementing teleradiology" suggests a technology project. In practice, at a facility that already owns working imaging equipment, it is a workflow change with a narrow scope. It is worth being precise about what is in scope and what is not, because the scope decides the cost.

What does not change

  • The scanner. Acquisition stays with you, on your equipment, under your protocol.
  • The technologist. Positioning, exposure and image quality remain your team's responsibility. No remote reporting service can fix an under-exposed film after the fact.
  • The referral. The patient's clinician remains your referring clinician. We do not see patients and we do not provide medical advice to them.
  • Ownership of the record. The study and the report belong to your facility.

What does change

Three things, and they are the whole point of the exercise.

  1. Who reads the study. A licensed reporting radiologist reads it, whether or not one happens to be on site at that hour.
  2. When it is read. Studies enter a queue with a stated priority instead of waiting for the next time a radiologist is available.
  3. How the read is evidenced. The report is produced in a structured format, returned to your facility and archived, and critical findings are notified to a named clinician with the time of notification recorded.

The four steps, concretely

  1. Your facility acquires the study.
  2. The study and its clinical information are uploaded to the secure portal.
  3. A licensed reporting radiologist interprets it and produces a structured report.
  4. The report is returned and archived; critical findings are notified to your named clinician.

Turnaround, stated honestly

Targets are measured from upload, not from the moment the patient walks in. That distinction matters: if a study sits on a workstation for two hours before it is uploaded, the clock has not started.

Published targets, measured from upload. These are targets, not guarantees.
Priority Target turnaround
Emergency / STAT 60–120 minutes
Urgent Within 4 hours
Routine Within 24 hours

Actual turnaround depends on the completeness of the study and the reader bench at the time. Any provider quoting a hard guarantee on turnaround is either measuring something different or planning to renegotiate.

The part people underestimate: the upload

The commonest failure in a remote reporting setup is not the reading, it is the upload. A facility with an intermittent connection needs a routine that tolerates interruption — studies queued locally and sent when the link is up, rather than an operator watching a progress bar. Ask any provider how their upload behaves on a bad day before you judge their turnaround target on a good one.

What it does not replace

Remote reporting does not replace a radiologist on site for anything requiring physical presence: ultrasound performance, fluoroscopy, contrast administration decisions, interventional work, or quality assurance of acquisition technique. A facility that needs those capabilities still needs a person. A facility that needs its acquired studies reported has a different problem, and that is the problem this solves.

HakimeRAD Teleradiology is a pre-launch service of Hakimerad Medical Consultancy. Availability and terms are confirmed at enquiry.