title: Do clinicians read our reports? Integrating the radiology information system with the electronic patient record: experiences from the first 2 years.
abstract: This study aimed to determine how clinicians adapted to and utilized new routines for accessing radiology reports after the integration of an electronic patient record (EPR) with a radiology information system (RIS). Activity-related data describing the availability and receipt of radiology reports were collected from the EPR and the RIS over a period of 2 years. Twelve percent of the final radiology reports had not been opened 4 weeks after they had been entered into the EPR. For opened reports, the median time after a report was available in the EPR until it was first opened by a clinician was less than 1 h for preliminary reports and less than 4 h for final radiology reports. The use of radiology reports was stable during the second observation year. Some reports were not opened for professional as well as technical reasons. The integrated information systems offered a potential for improving routines related to the transmission of radiology reports. Clinicians did not fully take advantage of this potential in the 2 years after its introduction.
authors.affiliation: Helse Sør-Øst Health Services Research Centre, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway. petter@hurlen.no
authors.forename: Petter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hurlen
authors.forename: Truls
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Østbye
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borthne
authors.forename: Fredrik A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Dahl
authors.forename: Pål
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gulbrandsen
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009664:Norway; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011871:Radiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018511:Systems Integration