Improving the quality of radiology reporting: a physician survey to define the target.
OBJECTIVE
Our long-term goal is to improve the quality of reports in radiology imaging interpretation. The rationale for this project focused on identifying the characteristics of a high-quality report from the perspective of referring physicians and radiologists.


METHODS
We undertook a survey of physician faculty at a large Midwestern academic medical center (including university, children's, veteran's, county and private practice hospitals) regarding radiology report quality concepts.


RESULTS
Using a 5-point Likert scale, >95% of respondents indicated the highest importance rating (score=5) for radiology report characteristic "Accurate," with mean score of 4.94. Seventy-eight to 83% of respondents considered "Clear," "Complete" and "Timely" to have the highest importance rating, with means of these scores between 4.73 and 4.79. Somewhat less desirable characteristics included "Well-organized" and "Mentions pertinent negatives"-though radiologists tended to think the latter was less important than did all other categories of physician respondents. The single greatest problem area in reporting is lack of timeliness. Using a 10-point Likert scale, respondents gave a median score of seven for overall satisfaction with current reporting.


CONCLUSIONS
For high-quality radiology reporting, accuracy is most important. Clarity, completeness and timeliness are also very important. Radiologists tend to consider mentioning pertinent negatives as less important than do referring physicians; otherwise, respondents from different specialties largely agreed on which characteristics are most important for high-quality reports. There is room for improvement in physician satisfaction with radiology reporting.
Johnson
Annette J
AJ
Department of Radiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianopolis, Indiana 46278-9552, USA.
Ying
Jun
J
Swan
J Shannon
JS
Williams
Linda S
LS
Applegate
Kimberly E
KE
Littenberg
Benjamin
B
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004282:Documentation / Q000592:standards*; D007196:Indiana; D008499:Medical Records / Q000592:standards*; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011786:Quality Control; D011871:Radiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires