[Assessment of thoracic X-ray readings by emergency room physicians at a university hospital].
BACKGROUND
We aimed to find out whether systematic reading of chest radiography (CRx) by radiologists in the emergency unit might lead to a higher diagnostic efficiency and improve health care.


METHODS
Descriptive study of consecutive admissions during 3 months in an internal medicine department. We registered the CRx interpretation by the emergency unit physician first, and a radiologist the next day. In cases with different interpretations, we assessed whether these differences would have modified the treatment.


RESULTS
The overall disagreement between the emergency room physician and the radiologist was 13.7%. In 19 of 29 cases with different readings, the radiologist interpretation was in agreement with the final diagnosis. In 7 of these 19 cases, the radiologist reading of CRx would have led to a positive change of treatment. However, differences between both physicians were not statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
There seems to be a higher diagnostic efficiency when the emergency room physician interpretation of CRx is complemented by a radiologist.
Urrutia
A
A
Servicio de Medicina Internal, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Bechini
J
J
Tor
J
J
Olazábal
A
A
Rey-Joly
C
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010820:Physicians; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013030:Spain