Errors in Medical Imaging and Radiography Practice: A Systematic Review.

Area of Science:

• Medical imaging and radiography
• Healthcare quality and patient safety

Background:

• Healthcare errors can harm patients and erode public trust.
• In radiography, errors lead to increased radiation exposure, misdiagnosis, and improper patient management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the types and frequency of errors in radiography practice.
• To develop recommendations for minimizing common radiography errors.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature review was conducted.
• Searched Ovid Medline and PubMed databases for relevant articles.
• Analyzed 41 articles based on preprocedural, procedural, and postprocedural phases of the imaging cycle.

Main Results:

• Errors can occur at any stage of the medical imaging cycle.
• Communication failures, particularly during patient handovers, are the primary cause of errors.
• Incident reporting is recognized, but user feedback is frequently insufficient.

Conclusions:

• Implementing a systematic approach in radiographic practice can decrease communication errors.
• Further research is needed on expanding radiographer roles and utilizing electronic systems to reduce errors.