Sign In
CPSI Share                                                                      
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ​​
Publication Type: Safer Practice Notice
Single or Multiple Incident: Multiple
Date: 2/5/2007 12:00:00 AM

Radiology imaging tests are requested by a registered health professional who relies on a report and image usually generated by a radiologist or radiographer. The report and image are sent to the referring health professional, who then acts on the result. The system for requesting radiology imaging tests and sending reports to the referring health professional is unreliable and has been proven to fail. Numerous fatal ands severe harm patient safety incidents were a result of failing to follow up radiological imaging reports. This Safer Practice Notice advises healthcare organisations to make changes in their policies to ensure that radiology imaging results are communicated and acted on appropriately. Specific recommended actions to reduce risk for healthcare professionals, radiology departments and reporting radiographers and radiologists, and medical and nursing directors are further outlined in the source document.



Early identification of failure to act on radiological imaging reports