A Computer System for Requesting and Reporting Radiologic Examinations, Verifying Receipt of Reports by Referring Physicians, and Tracking Patients with Significant Abnormal Findings

Summary

Verification of the receipt of a report by the referring physician when significant abnormalities are seen on an imaging examination, and the timely follow-up of these patients are not only good medical practices, but have recently been deemed a duty of the Radiologist by several courts in the United States¹. This paper describes a computer system developed several years ago at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Anaheim, which fulfills these needs. In addition to many other functions, the system can track the 160, 000 imaging studies per year performed at the hospital and at eight (8) outlying clinics (the furthest one being 26 miles), print reports at all these locations in the offices of the referring physicians, track timely interpretation of all examinations, attach acknowledgement letters to reports containing significant abnormal findings which the referring physician is expected to sign and return, track these acknowledgement letters, and track patients with these abnormal findings so that they are not “lost” to follow-up. To increase patient satisfaction a “normal” letter is mailed to patients with normal examinations. It also tracks the ordering practices of the referring physicians, and provides them with feedback so that resources are utilized optimally.