Client story

How Desert Imaging turned missed follow-ups into an estimated $537,513 in follow-up care

Five outpatient centers across El Paso and West Texas, and ten years on the same platform. Their follow-up list used to live in a spreadsheet.

IndependentOutpatient, multi-siteTen years on AbbaDox
Raul Arizpe
President and Chief Operating Officer,
Desert Imaging
Read what he says ↓
Jump to a chapter10 chapters
Practice profileIndependent, outpatient
5
outpatient centers across El Paso and West Texas
461
appointments booked from the first follow-up campaign
10+
years on AbbaDox
7
modalities, X-ray through PET/CT
In his own words

Five parts of the day, from one interview.

Raul Arizpe runs Desert Imaging as president and chief operating officer. These are his own words on each part of the work.

Medical records
“Putting all of the information on one page for that particular patient. So if that patient had multiple mammograms in the last few years, breast ultrasound, an MRI, it’s all there. The results are all there. If they have a biopsy, it’s all there.”
Breast health
“The breast health module… helps us meet MQSA requirements, helps us meet local FDA and state and other regulatory environments. And it also helps us keep track of our patients, which is really the most important thing.”
Patient billing
“We have the ability to create a payment link into the text message. So if your appointment is on Wednesday, today’s Monday, you’ll get a text message saying, based on the review of your insurance, your patient responsibility is $200. Please click here to pay. And we’re seeing very good adoption of that.”
Prepaid appointments
“Now that the patient has paid in advance, they’re going to show up to their appointment because they’ve already prepaid for it… It induces patients to show up, and it makes our workflow at the front desk a lot simpler.”
Ten years in
“The AbbaDox team is very good about listening to us and taking our inputs and actually developing features.”
3,595
follow-up reminders sent
in the first campaign
461
imaging appointments
scheduled from them
389
follow-up exams
actually completed
01 · The gap

A follow-up list that lived in a spreadsheet

Radiologists routinely recommend a follow-up study, and somebody has to make sure it happens. At Desert Imaging that somebody kept a spreadsheet, worked it by hand between other jobs, and called patients one at a time. Anything that fell off the list stayed off it.

  • Follow-up recommendations tracked manually, outside the system of record
  • Outreach made by staff phone call, when there was time
  • No way to see which recommended studies had never been booked
02 · The automation

The recommendation becomes the reminder

With AI Follow-Up Recommendations, the system reads the radiologist's recommendation out of the report, works out when the study is due, and contacts the patient itself. The first campaign went to 3,595 patients who had a recommended study outstanding.

  • Follow-up recommendations identified from the report, not from a list somebody maintains
  • Patients contacted automatically when the study becomes due
  • Booked, unbooked and completed all visible in one place
Ten years in
“The AbbaDox team will come out with new features that we hadn't thought about that really help us.”
Raul Arizpe, President and Chief Operating Officer
Desert Imaging
03 · The front desk

Paid before they arrive

The same platform now handles the money conversation before the visit. Insurance is checked, a good faith estimate goes out by text with a payment link in it, and a patient who has already paid is a patient who turns up. The front desk stops being a checkout.

  • Good faith estimate and patient responsibility sent by text before the appointment
  • Payment link in the message, so the balance is settled in advance
  • Registration is faster because there is nothing left to collect
  • One patient page carries every prior mammogram, ultrasound, MRI and biopsy result

The results Desert Imaging sees

$537,513
Estimated revenue across eight months of automated follow-up
8,587
Follow-up recommendations AI found in their own reports
2,721
follow-up exams
completed
The first campaign alone: 3,595 reminders, 461 appointments scheduled, $63,438 booked. Completion measured at 31.7% across eight months.
5
outpatient centers on one platform
10+
years as an AbbaDox client

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