TITLE:
Improving Ordering Practices and Radiology Workflow in the Emergency Department through Multidisciplinary Didactic Series: Survey Based Evaluation
AUTHORS:
Geraldine Abbey-Mensah, Andrew Kesselman, David Areman
KEYWORDS:
ACR Appropriateness Criteria; Quality Improvement; Emergency Department; Referring Physicians
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Radiology,
Vol.4 No.2,
March
28,
2014
ABSTRACT: The purpose of our
Quality Improvement (QI) project was to evaluate the effectiveness of radiology-led
didactics on efficiency and ordering practices in the emergency department.
Residents of the emergency medicine (EM) program at Downstate Medical
Center/Kings County Hospital (postgraduate years 1 - 4) participated in a
didactic lecture series during the first two months of the 2013 academic year.
Two fifteen-minute lectures with a question and answer session were designed
to focus on radiation risk, American College of Radiology (ACR) appropriateness
criteria and the department of radiology’s policies. A short survey
questionnaire that included questions on ACR appropriateness criteria,
radiology experiences and opinions/attitudes regarding radiology was
distributed and analyzed before and after the didactic series. The average
score for the knowledge-based technical questions on ACR appropriateness
criteria was 60.5% initially and 76.4% post-lecture with an overall improvement
of 25%, which was statistically significant (p