title: Accident and emergency and general practitioner plain radiograph reporting by radiographers and radiologists: a quasi-randomized controlled trial.
abstract: Two specially trained radiographers at York District Hospital have been reporting appendicular plain radiograph X-ray examinations for Accident and Emergency (A&E) patients since February 1995. This study explores the potential for further expanding their reporting role. This was achieved by assessing the two radiographers' and a group of consultant radiologists' ability to report on a retrospectively selected random stratified sample of 400 A&E and General Practitioner (GP) plain radiograph X-ray examinations for all body areas. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses there was no statistically significant difference at the 5% level between the area under the ROC curves for the radiographers and consultant radiologists when reporting A&E or GP plain radiographs. It may be feasible to expand the reporting role of suitably trained radiographers to include plain radiograph X-ray examinations for all A&E patients and for GP patients, with no detriment to the quality of reports.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of York, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brealey
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: M T I
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Crowe
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Crawshaw
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Warnock
authors.forename: R A J
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Mannion
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ethell
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D004739:England; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D012372:ROC Curve; D011859:Radiography / Q000592:standards*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity