How patients view the efficient use of diagnostic radiation

Patients who are subjected to diagnostic x rays sometimes feel victimized by their dependence on large and very complex medical-care systems which treat them with over-all indifference. Some of these individuals are confronted with physicians and dentists who seem to order radiographs without giving reasons, as well as with employers and hospitals who require radiographs without seeming to "need" them. Other patients feel that they are acting as guinea pigs in training programs to technologists who appear to require retakes because they are working in a rapid and slapdash manner. When questioned by patients, personnel who are responsible for ordering or conducting x-ray examinations often inform them that someone else in the system is responsible for any unnecessary radiation exposure. Patients, dentists, physicians, radiologists, technologists, health physicists, and radiation control officers all bear responsibility for the efficient use of diagnostic radiation. People working in these capacities should cooperate more closely in the mutual sharing of responsibility for the well-being of patients.