Teleradiology Specialists Makes 2017 Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies

When Dr. David Cohen decided to start his own teleradiology company, he never imagined it would land on Inc. 5000’s list of fastest-growing private companies. In fact, initially Dr. Cohen

was providing freelance teleradiology services while working a full-time job as chief radiologist for one of the nation’s largest teleradiology groups. But Dr. Cohen’s services were in demand, and after he started lining up more business than one person could cover, he decided to hire a staff of radiologists and turn his proprietorship into a corporation.

That was back in 2010. Today, Teleradiology Specialists (TRS) has grown to 40 employees and $13.4 million in annual revenue, providing x-ray over-read services to 1,720 urgent care centers in 45 states. From 2013-2016, the company achieved a 600 percent growth rate, placing the company at 758 on the 2017 Inc. 5000 list.

TRS CEO Glamaris Cohen says they’ve worked diligently from the very beginning to set a high standard of quality that keeps staff and customer attrition low. “From the early days, we put together a quality assurance program which ensured that, as we grew, our quality remained consistent across the board,” says Glamaris. “Our service promise is not only quality of the reads, but they have to be done with speed because we want to get the final report in the patient’s hands before they leave the urgent care center.”

Developing a culture committed to quality was years in the making and required setting clear expectations with new hires at every level of the organization. The leadership team spent a lot of time working with their radiologists to emphasize that the reads must be of the highest possible quality because that has such a large impact on the business.

“When hiring doctors, we had to convey the very same consistent message,” says Glamaris. “They had to want to be a part of building something and be committed to providing the highest quality. We’d work around their schedules and value them as the professionals they are, and they’d share in company growth and experience profitability.”

Over time, TRS was able to get senior radiologists involved in the policy making process and to participate in the quality assurance program by reviewing their peers’ work. Employees are expected to “walk the walk,” says Glamaris, and hold firm to the company’s quality standards. The doctors who have remained with the company through this process accept the TRS culture of quality and even participate in it.

As TRS looks to the future, they plan to expand from serving urgent care centers to serve a broader audience, including primary care, occupational health, and specialty medicine practices. According to Glamaris, TRS’ services – providing real-time over reads – have always aligned perfectly with the urgent care model, but they believe they can add value to other segments of the health care industry.

“We’re working to create an alternative to the traditional teleradiology company,” says Glamaris. “In the early days of teleradiology, the service was referral-based and had no ‘face’ or touch-point. It was just a report you received at some point after your visit, and the results were communicated by your personal physician or by a practitioner… We wanted to become a boutique radiology company that personalized the teleradiology experience