Radiology in family practice: a descriptive study of office practice

This study examined all x-rays from five family practice clinics for the year 1987, recording x-ray type together with the age and sex of the patient x-rayed. A total of 4,024 x-rays was obtained from 71,192 patient visits--an x-ray utilization rate of 5.65 percent. Most office x-rays were of the chest (39.6 percent), upper extremities (21.3 percent) or lower extremities (21.0 percent). These three categories predominated for all age groups of both sexes, for all months of the year, and for all clinics studied. Males utilized x-rays much more frequently than did females (8.86 percent overall rate for males; 3.95 percent overall rate for females) at all ages except for the age group 0-10 (2.19 percent for males, 3.04 percent for females). The gender combined age group with the highest utilization rate was between 51-60 (8.39 percent) whereas the gender combined age group 0-10 had the lowest utilization rate (2.61 percent). Uniformity was demonstrated from clinic to clinic on type of x-rays obtained, frequency of x-rays by gender, and frequency of x-rays per month. A major difference, however, was noted in utilization rates between clinics. There was a two-fold difference in x-ray utilization between the clinic with the highest utilization rate and the one with the lowest. This data is useful for focusing the content of residency training and continuing medical education in radiology, for providing a content base to evaluate family physicians in radiology, and for providing a foundation upon which further investigations into office radiology can be constructed.