Customer Case Study:
Cleveland Clinic's Imaging Institute is one of the leading radiologic academic centers in the world as well as one of the busiest clinical departments in the country.
The CT department at Cleveland Clinic performs over 100 enterography exams per month – although predominately outpatient, the clinic has its share of in-patient and emergency cases to deal with as well. As you can imagine, patient care and work flow are top priorities at this busy and highly –regarded center.
The Challenge:
Tracy Painter, Clinical Manager, was experiencing a lot of complaints from patients regarding the prep for CT Enterography exams.
Patients were required to drink three bottles (1350ml) of neutral contrast within 60 minutes. “A lot of patients were getting full, a lot of patients complained about the taste, and they just complained about drinking in general.” It wasn’t rare for her to hear “I can’t do it, I can’t do it” or “I can’t drink anymore” from her patients.
Although Tracy and her staff would spend time (often 15-20 minutes) trying to coach patients to drink the full amount for best results from their abdominal scan, she often had to call the reading room and then wait for an answer from the radiologist, which could take an additional 15-20 minutes depending on how busy they are, on what to do when there were patient issues with drinking. “We'd constantly be calling them saying, ‘Well, they can only drink this amount, what should we do?’”
It was a big process, according to Tracy, with lots of patient complaints and interruptions in scheduling and productivity when patients could not, or would not, comply with drinking instructions.
The Solution
In July of 2015, Tracy’s team began using Breeza™ flavored beverage for neutral abdominal / pelvic imaging for her CT enterography patients.
According to Tracy, “It was an easy switch and everything’s just easier. Since we switched to Breeza, there’s like no complaints.””
Tracy found her patients were more willing to drink Breeza for neutral abdominal / pelvic imaging than her previous beverage.
“It’s just more appealing,” she said, referring to the bottle label design of Breeza. “The patients don’t immediately make a face when you walk out with this, and none are like, ‘Uh, how much of this do I have to drink?’ Patients can drink it, they don't have a lot of questions, there's no issues with them drinking it. It's just much easier. It's a much easier flow.”
The Value
For Tracy, the switch to Breeza for Neutral abdominal/pelvic imaging paid off in many ways for her busy department:
- Patient Satisfaction - Tracy went from many complaints about drinking procedures for enterography exams to none.
- Drinking Compliance –Patients are no longer struggling to finish drinking in preparation for their scans
- Improved Workflow
- Staff doesn’t have to interrupt duties to coach patients to drink or wait for further instructions from the reading room
- Radiologists aren’t distracted by calls to the reading room on what to do when a patient cannot finish drinking
Customer Testimonial
When asked what she would say to another institution about her experience with Breeza for Neutral Imaging, Tracy said “It’s just easier. Patients like it a lot better. No complaints and no issues with them drinking.”
