Opinions, Views, and Expectations Concerning the Radiology Report: A Rural Medicine Report

Abstract

This study seeks to examine a potential agreement and/or discordance of specific aspects of the radiology report between referring clinicians and radiologists within a medical group in a predominately rural setting. This study also aims to compare results with similar studies conducted in other geographic regions. This was done using a previously validated survey tool that examines five different aspects of the radiology report: importance, clinical correlation, clinicians' satisfaction, content, structure, and style. Dichotomized results were statistically analyzed using χ ² or Fischer's exact test and showed significant differences in the areas of importance and content. Non-dichotomized results unique to clinicians and radiologists were assessed qualitatively. Most clinicians found the radiology report to be useful in their clinical decision making and that they received radiology reports in a timely enough fashion to affect their decision making. These results were largely found to be in accordance with similar studies, but significant differences unique to the sampled population were present. Based on these findings, we have included specific recommendations that may enhance the clinical efficiency of radiology reports as used by clinicians and potentially reduce medical errors secondary to clinical information not always fully captured in radiology reports.

Keywords: communication; education; interdisciplinary education; quality improvement; radiology; report.