Expediting the turnaround of radiology reports in a teaching hospital setting

The purpose of this study was to determine whether total quality management (TQM) techniques that had proved successful in a pilot study in one departmental section of a teaching hospital could be generalized for use by the entire radiology department.

Each departmental section developed interventions to improve its report turnaround time. These interventions were tailored to practice style and habits of each section. Commonly used interventions included electronic signature from the radiologist's home, a report-signing buddy system, elimination of a trainee signature requirement, accelerated transcription, structured reports, faster film delivery to reading desks, and training about the importance of radiology reports for clinical decision making. Specialized programs included computerized form-driven reporting and reports generated directly by computer voice recognition of radiologists' dictation. Our radiology information system provided data on each step in the reporting process.

The TQM approach produced significant improvements in departmental total report turnaround time (-55%; p = .001), transcription time (-80%; p = .003), and signature time (-68%; p = .0004). Each section achieved significant gains. The sonography section initiated a computerized, form-driven reporting system and outperformed the rest of the department.

TQM techniques can be expanded and generalized for department-wide projects in teaching hospitals.