At least one hospital system with a network of medical complexes in central Pennsylvania is feeling the brunt of an ongoing shortage of radiologists nationwide.
UPMC, the largest hospital system in Pennsylvania, said it was pursuing every opportunity to meet what it called a “growing demand” for radiology and imaging services.
“This includes prioritizing emergent and urgent studies to ensure patients get the critical care they need in a timely manner,” a UPMC spokesperson said.
Some UPMC patients have had to wait 30 days or more to get diagnostic results, according to social media posts on Nextdoor.
Dan T posted: “I had an MRI on December 8th and didn’t get my results until more than 4 weeks later. I think they only did that after I called and complained twice since they told me results would take 2-3 weeks. UPMC radiology is apparently a mess right now.”
Kathy S. of Jonestown this week posted: “I waited 8 weeks for results from a CT scan. I received the bill before I received the results. It’s unacceptable.”
UPMC told PennLive that over the past two weeks, the hospital system had “onboarded” additional radiologists to “strengthen our staffing” in central Pennsylvania, and “partnered with external radiology providers to decrease the wait time patients experience for imaging results.”
“We appreciate our patients’ continued confidence in UPMC’s world-class care and the growing demand for our services,” UPMC said.
The shortage is being attributed to an aging population, high burnout rates, increased retirements, and a restricted training pipeline, according to the Radiological Society of North America.
The organization cites projected deficits of 17,000 to 42,000 radiologists by 2033. The imbalance comes in the aftermath of a historic rate of attrition of radiologists during the pandemic.
At least one regional health system is relying on emerging medical technologies to ease the impact of the shortage.
WellSpan Health spokesman Ryan Cole said the health system has expanded its imaging capacity through the extensive use of artificial intelligence, in particular Aidoc.
The Israel-based AI health care platform is capable of detecting 20 conditions and immediately notify care teams of critical results for priority patients, according to Harvard Business School. Aidoc can detect over 75% of common acute pathologies visible on CT scans.
WellSpan added it had also redesigned staffing models to support and augment the workflow of radiologists and turnaround times.
WellSpan said wait times for patient radiology results remained low.
“These factors combine to enable our radiologists to efficiently guide our patients’ evaluation and treatment, and maintain excellence in providing safe, high-quality, personalized care,” Cole said.
He added that while WellSpan has been affected by the national radiologist shortage, AI capabilities and workflow restructuring had reduced “bottlenecks for case review” and escalated potentially abnormal findings to the top of the queue.
“On average, turnaround times for attaining routine outpatient results throughout the WellSpan system are about 10 hours, with mammogram screening results returned in about 15 hours,” Cole said. “Extremely time-sensitive results, such as stroke imaging, have an average turnaround time of 12 minutes.”
Another factor likely compounding the shortage is the Trump administration immigration policy on certain new visa applications.
President Trump last year imposed a $100,000 fee for all new H-1B visa applications, sending shock waves through tha nation’s hospital and health systems, which rely heavily on foreign physicians and other medical professionals who held H-1B visas.
Faced with the prospect of having to pay millions in fees, some hospitals have paused, deferred, or limited recruitment of physicians and medical professionals needing H-1B visas, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges,
Congress established the H-1B visa program in 1990 as an avenue for employers to hire highly educated foreign professionals to work in specialty occupations, including engineering, technology, and medicine, where there was a shortage of U.S. workers.
Penn State Health said the federal H-1B visa fee changes have not had a direct impact on its radiology operations or patient access to imaging services.
“We continue to review evolving federal policies regarding H-1B visas and remain in touch with employees and prospective employees utilizing H-1B visas to provide support,” spokeswoman Nicole Wiestling said.
She added that Penn State Health was not experiencing delays in radiology results at any locations across the health system.