Most imaging centers track study volume. Most track revenue. Almost none track the one metric that most clearly reveals whether their teleradiology partner is actually performing: STAT utilization rate.
It is the percentage of your monthly read volume ordered as STAT rather than routine. And in our experience, most practices either do not track it, or have long since stopped questioning what the number means.
What STAT Is Supposed to Be
STAT reads exist for genuine clinical urgency — acute neurological presentations, post-operative complications, trauma cases that cannot wait. In those situations, expedited turnaround is clinically warranted and the premium attached to it is justified.
Leading teleradiology firms report average STAT turnaround under 30 minutes, with stroke CTs read under 7 minutes and trauma studies under 12 minutes.[1] That speed has real clinical value when the case warrants it.
What STAT is not designed to be is a substitute for reliable routine turnaround. When it becomes one, the costs accumulate quietly and quickly.
The STAT Trap
Here is what TAT degradation looks like in practice. A teleradiology partner that once delivered routine reads in 24 to 48 hours begins to slip. Studies arrive late. Referring physicians call. Schedulers start defaulting to STAT orders — not because the clinical situation demands it, but because it is the only reliable way to get a read back on time.
This normalization happens gradually. A 5% STAT rate becomes 10%, then 20%. At some point the staff accepts it as the way things work. The workaround becomes invisible. The premium cost becomes a fixed line item. The underlying performance problem goes unaddressed.
In the early 2000s, benchmarks were relatively lenient: a 24-hour turnaround for routine studies and one hour for STAT cases was considered acceptable.[2] As patient and payor pressure has intensified, those benchmarks have proven inadequate — yet many practices are still measuring their partner against standards that were outdated a decade ago.
What the Number Is Telling You
A rising STAT rate is rarely a reflection of your patient population becoming more acute. In most outpatient MSK and neurological imaging practices, clinical acuity is relatively stable over time.
What changes is the reads partner’s performance.
We have worked with practices ordering STAT reads at rates exceeding 35% of monthly volume — not because their patients were sicker, but because their previous partner’s routine TAT had degraded to the point where STAT was the only dependable option. After transitioning to a partner with consistent, contracted turnaround, that practice reduced its STAT rate by 29 percentage points. The studies did not change. The clinical acuity did not change. The TAT performance did — and so did the cost.
How to Audit Your Rate
The calculation is simple:
STAT utilization rate = (STAT reads ÷ total reads) × 100
Pull this number for the last 90 days. Then ask two questions:
Is the rate stable, rising, or declining? A rate that has been climbing over the past 6 to 12 months is a signal that routine TAT is quietly degrading, regardless of whether individual studies are arriving on time.
What is actually driving the STAT orders? Audit a sample. For each STAT order, ask whether the clinical situation genuinely required expedited turnaround — or whether STAT was ordered because it was the most reliable path to a timely read. If staff cannot confidently answer that question, the designation has become reflexive rather than clinical.
In most outpatient MSK and neuro imaging settings, a rate above 20% warrants investigation,[3] regardless of how long it has been that way.
The Takeaway
STAT utilization rate is not just a cost metric. It is a diagnostic tool — one that reveals whether your teleradiology partnership is performing, or whether your team has quietly engineered a workaround to compensate for a partner that isn’t.
Track it monthly. Audit the trend. If the number has been climbing without a corresponding change in clinical acuity, you have your answer.
References
- AAG Health. (2025, July 14). Teleradiology trends and industry changes: A deep dive for 2025. Retrieved from https://www.aag.health/post/teleradiology-trends-industry-changes
- Advanced Telemed Services. (2025, December 2). Why radiology turnaround time benchmarks are failing hospitals and what modern teleradiology fixes. Retrieved from https://advancedtelemedservices.com/why-radiology-turnaround-time-benchmarks-are-failing-hospitals-and-what-modern-teleradiology-fixes/
- AAG Health. (2025, November 24). Radiology turnaround time (TAT) benchmarks. Retrieved from https://www.aag.health/post/radiology-turnaround-time-benchmarks
