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Quality and Safety in Emergency Radiology

  • Quality and Safety (H Abujudeh, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

To review and outline problems and challenges in regard to patient safety along with solutions to overcome them.

Recent Findings

Errors and discrepancies in radiology practice are disappointingly common. The estimated rate of errors is more than 5% in many targeted studies. This requires a detailed review of different types of errors in radiology and potential strategies to prevent them.

Summary

An effective health care delivery system relies heavily on high degrees of skill in professionalism and communication. Strategies to prevent errors and improve communication with physicians in the Emergency Department are helpful in providing quality patient care, thus also decreasing the chances of conflicts and litigation.

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References

Recently published papers of particular interest have been highlighted as: • Of importance

  1. • Brady AP. Error and discrepancy in radiology: inevitable or avoidable? Insights Imaging. 2017;8(1):171–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13244-016-0534-1. Excellent review of types of errors and strategies to prevent them.

  2. • O’Malley RB, Pandey T, Heller MT, Chen LE, McGrath AL, Rajiah P, Bhargava P. Emergency radiology. In: Abujudeh HH, Bruno MA, editors. Radiology noninterpretive skills: the requisites; 2018. An excellent review of errors, factors causing errors and potential areas of improvement.

  3. • Donnelly LF, Strife JL. Establishing a program to promote professionalism and effective communication in radiology. Radiology. 2006;238(3):773–9. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2383041849. Lessons learned from an academic radiology department’s quest to improve communication.

  4. • ACR practice parameter for communication of diagnostic imaging findings, revised 2014 (Resolution 11), December 11, 2017. https://www.acr.org/-/media/ACR/Files/Practice-Parameters/CommunicationDiag.pdf. Accessed 6 Jun 2018. A brief overview of important aspects of communication.

  5. • ACR appropriateness criteria. March 23, 2018. https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/ACR-Appropriateness-Criteria. Accessed 2 Jun 2018. Evidence based guidelines by the American College of Radiology to help clinicians determine what imaging study would be most useful for their patient or clinical condition they are treating.

  6. • American College of Emergency Physicians-Clinical policies. March 23, 2018. https://www.acep.org/patient-care/clinical-policies/#sm.000013k7xeqbl0cq5y746oe2f8eww. Accessed 2 Jun 2018. Guidelines developed by the American College of Emergency Physicians to provide instruction on the management of emergency room patients.

  7. • Whang JS, Baker SR, Patel R, Luk L, Castro A. The causes of medical malpractice suits against radiologists in the United States. Radiology. 2013;266(2):548–54. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.12111119. Retrospective data review of Radiologist credentialing data to determine the most common causes of malpractice suits against radiologists.

  8. • Kushner DC, Lucey LL, American College of Radiology. Diagnostic radiology reporting and communication: the ACR guideline. J Am Coll Radiol. 2005;2(1):15–21. Guidelines created by the American College of Radiology for reporting and communications for radiological studies.

  9. • Abujudeh HH. “Just culture”: is radiology ready? J Am Coll Radiol. 2015;12:4–5. A safety concept example that could be applied to a department to reduce medical errors.

  10. • American Board of Radiology. Non-interpretive skills resource guide; 2017. https://www.theabr.org/sites/all/themes/abr-media/pdf/Noninterpretive_Skills_Domain_Specification_and_Resource_Guide.pdf. Accessed 28 May 2018. Resource guide in the areas of radiology quality and safety, professionalism and ethics, compliance, and regulatory and legal issues, as well as basic research and screening concepts.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, 185 South Orange Avenue, MSB F508B, Newark, NJ, 07103, USA

    Devashri Shah, Omar Jamil & R. Joshua Dym

Authors
  1. Devashri Shah
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  2. Omar Jamil
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  3. R. Joshua Dym
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Joshua Dym.

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Conflict of interest

Devashri Shah, Omar Jamil, and R. Joshua Dym each declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical collection on Quality and Safety.

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Shah, D., Jamil, O. & Dym, R.J. Quality and Safety in Emergency Radiology. Curr Radiol Rep 6, 42 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40134-018-0300-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40134-018-0300-x

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