Creating a patient-centered imaging service: determining what patients want

The purpose of this study is to determine patients' preferences for how, from whom, and how soon they receive imaging results.

Hard copies of our survey were randomly distributed to patients at an academic medical center outpatient imaging facility for 9 weeks, during August through October 2008, to collect data regarding patient preferences for how they received results ("Method"), from whom ("Person"), and how quickly ("Speed").

A total of 129 (23%) of 557 patients (47.4% male; median age, 55 years) undergoing CT (62%) and MRI (38%) completed the survey. According to survey responses, results needed to be communicated within a few hours for an "acceptable" rating from 95% of patients. Thirty-one percent preferred to receive normal results by the fastest method, whereas 35% preferred to receive abnormal results by telephone. Patients did not show an overwhelming preference regarding which physician communicates the results. More than 25% of patients were indifferent as to who was giving the results and cared only about the speed of delivery. For normal results, 12% chose from the radiologist, 41% from the referring physician, 14% from both, and 33% from whoever is faster (p < 0.0001). For abnormal results, 6% chose from the radiologist, 41% from the referring physician, 27% from both, and 26% from whoever is faster (p < 0.0002).

Patients in our study wanted their results communicated much sooner than is currently practiced. Optimizing patient satisfaction may require a new communication model.