Why do the patients hate my radiology department?

[Actinguy2]

I have a small clinic right now. Four urgent care doctors, an internal specialist, and x-rays.

The clinic is fully functional, all is going well. Except...while my urgent care and internal specialists are getting 4-5 stars, my radiology department (just the x-ray) has a zero star rating.

I can't figure out why. Everyone who needs an x-ray gets one. It's working. The x-ray technicial is a master specialist, with a 50% rating as a technician and 50% rating in radiology.

I do have a small waiting room for xray with only four chairs, but it hasn't gotten full as far as I can tell.

Any thoughts?

[Mouse_Nightshirt]

Your department reputation comes from a mix of staff and patient satisfaction - radiology doesn't have their own patients, so the satisfaction rating comes purely from the staff.

Are you catering to your staff needs? Does the department have a break room, cleaning cupboard and toilets? Are there a few vending machines and water dispensers for the staff? I suspect this is your issue.

[Sizewell]

Have you got toilet facilities and a place for staff to eat and rest. is it decorated? all of these bring down the prestige. It seems that lot of people are having problems with radiology and low prestige. It also appears that radiologists are very buggy at the moment which if they are having negative thoughts, it will bring the prestige down.

[Laiders72]

Does the radiologist have a seperate nice office to sit in between scans or is their imaging room decorated at least? I personally always partition my imaging rooms into a small decorated office and the actual imaging room. This gives positive moodlets to the staff member as they are comfortable and in a nice environment. You do not need to actually partition the room with a wall but, unlike a doctor's office, I find it odd to have potted plants and other such things in an imaging room. Do they have ready access to toilets and food, ideally a full common room but a vending machine would do? Are they worked off their feet to such an extent that they cannot satisfy their needs?

I ensure my radiologists have a nice environment to sit in (their little office), nearby food and bathrooms and that they can have breaks (note my current hospital can comfortably meet the needs of a full A&E and general surgery unit with only one X-ray room). My radiology departments have never dipped below 2 1/2 stars and are usually 3 1/2 or more.

Also note, you absolutely can add individual imaging rooms into other departments. Need an extra X-ray just for orthopaedics? No problem. Make sure the orthopaedic department is set up such that there are nearby toilets and sources of food for the radiologist and build the room as usual. The room is effectively part of orthopaedics and will use all the orthopaedic facilities but technically the imaging room itself is radiology. It will be cleaned by the orthopaedic janitors as well. Actually now I think about it I've never tested if you can share waiting rooms this way because I always put a couple of benches, a vending machine and a water dispenser down when I do this to make a small waiting room.

[Actinguy2]

Ah, thank you! Good input!