Christoph Stern BA, MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Nadine Kawel-Boehm MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Klemens Wittig, Abstract Co-Author: Employee, Euronet Worldwide, Inc

Thomas Boehm MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Short turnaround times of radiologic reports are essential for an optimized patient workflow and contribute to the economic success of a hospital. Subspecialized radiology aims at increasing the quality of radiologic reports but is not performed routinely in Europe. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the impact of subspecialized radiology on turnaround times of radiologic reports in our institution compared to the conventional modality based reporting approach (CT, MRI, x-ray).

We defined the total turnaround time (tTAT) of a radiologic report as the time from confirmation of an exam till its approval. Turnaround times were extracted and calculated from the Radiology Information System (RIS) by a self-developed calculation tool within the Software RadCentre Analyzer (Transact GmbH, Hamburg, Germany). Subspecialized Radiology – musculoskeletal-, cardiac- and thoracic-, abdominal-, breast-, pediatric-, neurological imaging and interventional radiology – was introduced on January 1st 2014. Only reports were included, that were generated and approved by subspecialized senior consultants. The average tTAT over all radiologic exams and separately for the main modalities (CT, MRI, x-ray) were compared over a period of 3 months, prior to (October–December 2013; modality based reporting) and after introduction of subspecialized reporting (January–March 2014).

The average tTAT over all radiologic exams of subspecialized senior consultants was 10:35:44 (hh:mm:ss) from January till March 2014, compared to 12:27:54 from October till December 2013. The decrease of tTAT by an average of 1:52:10 (-15%) after introduction of subspecialized radiology was statistically significant (p<0.001). Furthermore a statistically significant reduction of tTAT was evaluated for reports of CT (-23,5%, p<0.01) and x-ray exams (-14,8%, p<0.001), while for reports of MRI exams the difference in tTAT was not significant (-3,2%, p=0.37).

Introduction of subspecialized radiology is an effective method to reduce the turnaround time of radiologic reports for the majority of modalities. A longer follow up period is necessary to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of subspecialized reporting.

By reducing turnaround time of radiologic reports, important clinical information will be available earlier to clinicians, facilitating immediate initiation of treatment.

Stern, C, Kawel-Boehm, N, Wittig, K, Boehm, T, Impact of Subspecialized Radiologic Reporting on Report Turnaround Time.  Radiological Society of North America 2014 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, - ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2014/14019172.html