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The Effect of Faster Reporting Speed for Imaging Studies on the Number of Misses and Interpretation Errors: A Pilot
Evgeniya Sokolovskaya1, Tejas Shinde1, Richard B Ruchman1
1Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, New Jersey.
Purpose:
The purpose of the study was to determine if increasing radiologist reading speed results in more misses and interpretation errors.
Methods:
We selected a sample set of 53 abdomen-pelvis CT scans of variable complexity performed at a teaching hospital during the study period. We classified the CT scans into 4 categories based on their level of difficulty, with level 4 representing the most-complex cases. Five attending radiologists participated in the study. We initially established an average baseline reporting time for each radiologist. Radiologists were randomly assigned a set of 12 studies, of varying complexity, to dictate at their normal speed, and a separate set of 12 studies, of similar complexity, to read at a speed that was twice as fast as their normal speed. The major and minor misses were recorded and analyzed. A χ(2) analysis was used to compare the results.
Results:
Reading at the faster speed resulted in more major misses for 4 of the 5 radiologists. The total number of major misses for the 5 radiologists, when they reported at the faster speed, was 16 of 60 reported cases, versus 6 of 60 reported cases at normal speed; P = .032. The average interpretation error rate of major misses among the 5 radiologists reporting at the faster speed was 26.6%, compared with 10% at normal speed.
Conclusions:
Our pilot study found a significant positive correlation between faster reading speed and the number of major misses and interpretation errors.
