[Computer-assisted reporting. Experience with the use of a departmental information system]

Since April 1989, a departmental information system has been working at the Radiology Dept. of Desio Hospital, Desio, Milan. The system has six work-stations, connected in a local network. The Proram program (Metrika, Verona) is employed, which allows the computerized management of departmental activities. After a short description of Proram's functions and of their advantages, a special attention is paid to the reporting activity, as limited to normal reports. The latter can be made either as free or as codified and previously stored texts. The percentage of use of codified reports (49%) is evaluated on the basis of about 8,000 X-ray exams per year. Through the analysis of percentage data of codified reports, according to exam categories, previously stored reports appeared to be more frequent for inpatients and for emergency examinations (58% of overall figure). Codified reporting appeared to be proportionally less employed in the most specialized diagnostic examinations. On the whole, considerable time was saved, and the number of misprints decreased; moreover, higher language standardization was achieved. More detailed information was thus available for the clinician.