The cost of fear and anxiety in radiology

When interviewed about their recent [1]  diagnostic imaging experience, patients described experiencing both positive and negative feelings throughout the imaging process. While most expressed feelings of being well taken care of, respected and informed, many also cited feelings of nervousness, uncertainty and powerlessness.

Stress can have a physiological impact on some patient test results, which may lead to complications or discrepancies in diagnosis and, ultimately, in treatment.

When trying to reduce fear reactions, one important approach is to remove threatening stimuli from an environment. For anxiety, it is different. In an anxiety situation, it might be useful to introduce certain stimuli to guide the thinking or the cognitive process.

Patient stress has a direct impact on the radiology workflow, cost and bottom-line. Patients who are feeling stressed may find it more difficult to understand or comply with commands given to them, so staff may have to take much longer to coach these patients through an exam. Finally, patients may become restless and make undesired movements or they may simply not show up at all, disrupting all scheduling efforts.

Philips has combined a research-based approach and people-centric design thinking to develop positive distractions and a calming environment for the patient and an improved work environment for the staff.

By helping facilities uncover new opportunities to improve the patient, family and staff experience, care-related anxiety can be reduced at the source.

There’s growing evidence that suggests focusing on the experience of the patients, the work environment and needs of the staff can provide a positive impact across the board to improve clinical, operational and financial outcomes.