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More US hospitals may be offering CT colonography
McHugh M. J Am Coll Radiol. 2011;8:169-174.
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The number of US hospitals offering CT colonography has slightly increased during a recent 3-year period, according to study results.
Researchers from several sites used data from the American Hospital Association annual surveys to identify the proportion of US hospitals that offered CT colonography between 2005 and 2008. In 2009, they conducted exploratory interviews with representatives from radiology departments in six hospitals that provided the service and three hospitals that did not. The aim was to shed light on factors that motivated or impeded adoption of this screening procedure.
Seventeen percent of hospitals offered the procedure in 2008 vs. 13% in 2005. Among hospitals that offered the colonography procedure in 2008, 69% also offered optical colonoscopy. Approximately 12% of hospitals reported offering both services.
Factors involved in adoption cited by radiology department clinicians included:
- A desire to provide an alternative screening option for frail, elderly patients and patients with failed optical colonoscopy.
- Long waits for optical colonoscopy.
- Promising evidence on CT colonography published in peer-reviewed literature.
All respondents said the procedure was enthusiastically supported by at least one member of the radiology department in their hospital. Four staff gastroenterologists supported the procedure, and two gastroenterologists did not support it.
The most frequently reported barrier to adoption was lack of reimbursement. Although cost was not cited as a barrier among the hospitals that offered the service, cost was a barrier among the three hospitals that had not implemented it, with reimbursement cited as an issue.
Patient demand or competition with other hospitals that offered the procedure was not a motivating factor toward adoption.
Once the decision was made to provide the service, the time to implementation was less than 6 months in all hospitals.
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