Document Detail


Tracking delays in report availability caused by incorrect exam status with Web-based issue tracking: a quality initiative.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20798973     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Many radiology information systems (RIS) cannot accept a final report from a dictation reporting system before the exam has been completed in the RIS by a technologist. A radiologist can still render a report in a reporting system once images are available, but the RIS and ancillary systems may not get the results because of the study's uncompleted status. This delay in completing the study caused an alarming number of delayed reports and was undetected by conventional RIS reporting techniques. We developed a Web-based reporting tool to monitor uncompleted exams and automatically page section supervisors when a report was being delayed by its incomplete status in the RIS. Institutional Review Board exemption was obtained. At four imaging centers, a Python script was developed to poll the dictation system every 10 min for exams in five different modalities that were signed by the radiologist but could not be sent to the RIS. This script logged the exams into an existing Web-based tracking tool using PHP and a MySQL database. The script also text-paged the modality supervisor. The script logged the time at which the report was finally sent, and statistics were aggregated onto a separate Web-based reporting tool. Over a 1-year period, the average number of uncompleted exams per month and time to problem resolution decreased at every imaging center and in almost every imaging modality. Automated feedback provides a vital link in improving technologist performance and patient care without assigning a human resource to manage report queues.
Authors:
Omer Abdulrehman Awan; Frans van Wagenberg; Mark Daly; Nabile Safdar; Paul Nagy
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of digital imaging : the official journal of the Society for Computer Applications in Radiology     Volume:  24     ISSN:  1618-727X     ISO Abbreviation:  J Digit Imaging     Publication Date:  2011 Apr 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-03-15     Completed Date:  2011-07-22     Revised Date:  2012-04-02    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9100529     Medline TA:  J Digit Imaging     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  300-7     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 22 South Greene Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. omer.awan786@gmail.com
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Efficiency, Organizational*
Humans
Internet*
Quality Assurance, Health Care / methods*
Radiology Department, Hospital / organization & administration*
Radiology Information Systems*
Software Design*
Speech Recognition Software
Time

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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