[The degree of compliance with the radiology requests from primary care]

To study the level of compliance with the radiological tests requested from primary care.

A crossover, descriptive study with systematic randomised distribution.

Catchment area of a specialist centre covering eight urban health districts in Zaragoza.

413 X-ray requests out of those requested between January and March, 1995.

The filling in of the following sections was evaluated: patient's basic data, referral from, clinical/investigatory data, suspected diagnosis and its agreement with the radiology report, the investigation requested, date, signature and legibility of the request. Compliance was: complete name, 100%; telephone, 37%; address, 50%; social security number, 99%; referral from, 71%; symptomatology, 92%; clinical investigation, 35%; suspected diagnosis, 56%; date, 92%; signature, 86%; good legibility in 13% of cases and poor in 75%. Distribution by gender: men 44%, women 56%, a significant difference. Average age 47.2, women 49.9 and men 43.8, also a significant difference. Simple osteoarticular x-ray was the commonest request (43.3%).

1) There was poor compliance in the telephone and address sections. 2) Clinical data (symptoms, investigations) and the suspected diagnosis were also insufficient. 3) Date and signature did not reach the desirable 100% compliance. 4) Deficient legibility, with very few requests not causing problems.