Turn-around-time of radiographs in a neonatal intensive care unit

A quality assurance study was carried out prospectively in two phases at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The objectives of the study were to determine the turn-around-time (TAT) of radiographs requested for infants undergoing intensive care treatment in the NICU and the effects of a standard operating procedure introduced based on initial findings of first phase of the study on subsequent TAT. The TAT was defined as the time taken for the radiograph to be ready for viewing after the attending doctor had requested for it to be done on an infant. During phase one of the study, none of the requested radiographs was ready to be viewed by the doctors within the standard TAT of 45 minutes. The problems identified were ward staffs delay in sending request forms to the radiology department, radiographers' delay in shooting and processing the films, and delay by NICU porter in collecting the processed films. Based on these findings, a standard operating procedure (SOP) was drawn up jointly by the staff of NICU and Department of Radiology. During phase two of the study conducted at one month after implementation of the SOP, there was a reduction of TAT by 50%. However, only 3 (4.3%) of the radiographs achieved the standard TAT. The main problems identified during phase two were delay in sending request forms and in collecting processed radiographs by the porter system. The dismal TAT of radiographs in NICU was related primarily to human behaviour. Besides continuous staff education, replacement of the porter system with electronic system may improve the TAT.