We can all agree that AHRA members are the smartest, most resourceful people on the planet. (And if you don’t agree, well … let’s just say we’re too polite to argue.)

Every year, we leave CLIMB, the Annual Meeting, and various local events with our heads full of brilliant ideas, eager to return to our organizations and test new, innovative solutions. Yet we often find ourselves struggling to remember some of the specifics to get started. Or worse, we’re left hoping that one person we met, who solved our exact problem, will remember to email us that magic spreadsheet they mentioned.

Sound familiar?

The AHRA Board of Directors has heard you loud and clear in your comments and questions on the AHRA Forum, as well as during several recent AHRA events. As President Mario Pistilli promised in his remarks at our 2024 Annual Meeting, “AHRA will embark on an initiative to collect and share meaningful data and best practice performance metrics to help us maximize our power of one.”

Our goal? To enhance and support a powerful, interactive platform that makes data sharing and benchmarking effortless, providing readily accessible resources for all members. Because AHRA members are the brightest minds in the industry (go ahead, prove us wrong), we know this initiative will be a game-changer.

Last fall, AHRA officially began these efforts with the formation of the AHRA Benchmarking and Best Practices Task Force. Our members include:

• Gerard Wilson (Chair)
• Brian Fox
• Elyce Wolfgang
• Amanda Garlock
• Kevin Ordway
• Scott Steingall
• Derrek Taylor
• Blake McCormick
• Kimlyn Queen
• Chris Mitchell
• Alex Pinto

Since its inception, the task force has held biweekly meetings and built momentum on multiple fronts. Here is what we’ve been working on:

• Identifying Key Areas of Focus: We are actively monitoring the AHRA Forum and reviewing past discussions to identify the most pressing benchmarking and best practice topics. This helps us prioritize and focus our efforts where they are most needed.

• Reviewing Past Resources: We continue to review content from past Radiology Management journal and LINK articles, Annual Meetings, virtual events, and webinars, with the goal of developing improved ways to collate and access these valuable resources for easy reference.

• Refreshing Historical Surveys and Tools: We’ve reviewed past AHRA surveys and tools on compensation and benefits, turnaround times, and staff utilization. We are working on ideas to renew, reconfigure, and launch surveys and tools in the coming months and years.

• Setting Initial Focus Areas: Based on our reviews, we’ve identified three key focus areas for the initial phase of our efforts:
  • Result Turnaround Times
  • Staff Utilization/Productivity and Modeling
  • Access and Utilization Optimization

• Engaging Members Directly: We will participate in the upcoming AHRA My Way session, taking place Thursday, March 27 at 12 PM EDT. During this time, we’ll share an overview of our progress and seek direct input from attendees on these three topics, as well as any other best practices that are important to you.

We’re excited to continue this work, but we can’t do it alone. Here are three simple ways you can get involved and offer your help.

1. Attend the AHRA My Way session on Thursday, March 27.
2. Share your insights. Do you have best practices, hidden spreadsheets (we know you’ve got them!), KPI trackers, or standards you swear by? Now’s the time to share them with the task force. Send your data and insights to be reviewed and potentially included in our member toolbox. All sources will be kept anonymous. You can email us at: jnewmark@ahra.org.
3. Stay active on the AHRA Forum. This discussion platform is an incredible resource for our members. Keep sharing your questions, ideas, and best practices there — this is what being a member is all about!

Thank you for your continued engagement in these efforts. With your feedback, we’ll finalize our plans and begin rolling out new and enhanced resources for our members as quickly as possible.

This, friends, is the true definition of “sharing is caring.”

Register now for the AHRA My Way session on Thursday, March 27.