Surgeons versus radiologists: do we care what they think?

Acute surgical care nowadays usually involves access to urgent imaging. There is a paucity of data on how often the images or radiologist reports of these images are used by the surgical team. We aimed to identify the rates and timeliness of radiology images and report viewing for acute surgical admissions in an Australian tertiary university teaching hospital.

We utilized a data set comprising radiological studies completed at our institute during a one-month period. Investigations were classified by modality and whether images or reports were available 'in-hours' or 'after-hours'. The time taken from imaging to reports available for viewing by the surgical team was calculated using timestamps derived from electronic hospital systems. Spearman's rho test was used to assess correlation between the Study Ascribable Time and time to view an image or report.

Of 40 042 investigations, 1156 (3%) satisfied study criteria. Both images and reports were viewed in 82% (n = 950/1156) of cases. CT scans had the shortest median time for image (14 min, IQR 4-47 min) and report (25 min, IQR 8-68 min) viewing. CT (95%, n = 410/430) and MRI (95%, n = 38/40) scans had the highest proportion of both images and reports viewed, regardless of whether the scan was completed 'in-hours' or 'after-hours'. X-ray reports were viewed least often (73%).

This study demonstrates a high level of viewing of acute surgical radiological imaging and reports by surgical teams. The 'simpler' the study the less likely the radiology report will be viewed.