Understanding the Reading Slot Assignment Workflow

When your site is configured to use the reading slot assignment workflow, you first need to understand the big picture. Before delving into the details of how the IAE determines the best-suited radiologist to read an order, you need to grasp the general concepts:

• What does the high-level workflow look like?
• Which steps are involved?
• What do these steps do?

For a breakdown of a typical reading slot assignment workflow, see the Reading Slot Assignment Workflow Cheat Sheet in the Intelerad Service Portal.

The driving force behind the workflow is the IAE, an intelligent and customizable module that works in the background to determine the best-suited radiologist to assign to read an order.

When determining the best-suited radiologist, the IAE uses the following criteria to determine order assignments:

Radiologist AvailabilityThose radiologists that are logged in to InteleViewer with an active session, and occupying a reading slot for a valid time period.

Reading Slot Reading GroupsThe reading group properties of the selected reading slot as configured by the PACS administrator. The IAE assigns orders to radiologists that have selected reading slots with matching reading group associations.

Cumulative Assigned Reading Slot WorkloadThe total quantity of work automatically assigned by the IAE and manually assigned by a technologist to a radiologist occupying the corresponding reading slot over the course of a work-shift period. Dictated orders have no impact on the cumulative assigned reading slot workload.

Instantaneous WorkloadThe total quantity of STAT order work that is currently assigned to a radiologist. The IAE assigns a STAT order to the radiologist with the lowest instantaneous workload level.

In the case of routine orders, the IAE will use the instantaneous workload to balance routine order assignments among eligible radiologists if the cumulative assigned reading slot workload levels associated with those eligible radiologists are not sufficient to identify a best-suited radiologist.

Routine Workload LimitThe workload limit threshold of the number of routine orders that can be assigned to a radiologist. By default, the routine workload limit is 5 RVUs. To change the routine workload limit, contact the Intelerad Technical SupportCenter.

The IAE combines all the above criteria to determine the final radiologist assignment. In doing so, some criteria will take precedence over others. For example, the IAE considers the cumulative assigned reading slot workload before the instantaneous workload when computing the assignment of routine orders.

A technologist can override the assignment of an order by the IAE via the Technologist Portal. For example, Tom Rodin, a technologist at Total Lynham Radiology, knows that prostate orders can only be read by Dr. Grant. When Tom performs a prostate exam and checks the quality of the images, he manually assigns the order to Dr. Grant. The prostate order appears in Dr. Grant's worklist, where he can start to read the order.

The IAE handles technologist order assignments as permanent assignments and cannot reassign a manually assigned order. A technologist can undo an automatic order assignment, in which case, the order will be eligible for assignment by the IAE.