Enhancing Radiology Request Form Completeness With a Standardized Tool and Targeted Education: A Two-Cycle Clinical...

Area of Science:

• Radiology and Medical Imaging
• Healthcare Communication
• Quality Improvement in Healthcare

Background:

• Incomplete radiology request forms (RRFs) compromise diagnostic accuracy and patient management, particularly in resource-limited settings.
• RRFs are crucial for communication between clinicians and radiology departments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess RRF documentation completeness at Bashair University Hospital.
• To evaluate the impact of a standardized RRF and clinician education on documentation quality.

Main Methods:

• A prospective closed-loop clinical audit with two cycles (50 RRFs each) was performed.
• An intervention included a standardized Royal College of Radiologists (RCR)-compliant form and educational sessions.
• Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and chi-square testing.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements were noted in documentation for patient address (94%), urgency (94%), clinical background (84%), and diagnostic question (82%).
• Referring clinician name documentation increased from 18% to 94%.
• Telephone contact information and imaging modality documentation showed no significant improvement.

Conclusions:

• A standardized RRF with education effectively enhances documentation quality and RCR compliance.
• This study highlights the feasibility of low-cost interventions to improve communication and diagnostic safety.
• Sustained improvements require ongoing monitoring and reinforcement of key documentation fields.