Structured reporting templates reduce turnaround times by as much as 35 minutes
Structured reporting in neuroradiology can reduce workloads and turnaround times, an analysis of more than 3,000 reports recently proved.
A new paper published in Academic Radiology details one institution’s transition from free text to structured reporting templates and the resultant departmental impact, particularly for residents. Overall, structured reporting decreased the amount of time preliminary reports were available to clinicians by 20.7 minutes—a benefit that likely stems from a reduction in edits and proof-reading that can be a hindrance with free-text reports.
“Structured reporting aims to standardize both the organization of reports (e.g. into organ-based subheadings or feature-checklists), as well as the terminology when describing normal or pathologic findings, ideally by using a universally accepted lexicon,” corresponding author Jan Vosshenrich, MD, from the Department of Radiology, University Hospital Basel in Switzerland, and co-authors shared.
Authors of the study shared that a number of national and international radiology societies have advocated for more structured reporting, citing benefits like lower degrees of reporting variability, diagnostic errors and overlooked findings that are can be problematic with free-text reports. Studies have detailed these benefits before, however, the authors indicate that due to their small sizes and the specificity of the structured templates used, their universal applicability is relatively limited. This is something that the experts involved in this study sought to overcome by using multiple structured reporting templates on a large sample of radiology reports.
In total, 3,538 resident reports were included in the comparative research. The experts found that structured reports required fewer edits from residents following read-out sessions and by staff radiologists during report sign-off. This would explain not only the decreased amount of time it took for preliminary reports to be available to clinicians, but also the 35-minute reduction of final report availability times observed with structured templates.
“This reduction in proofreading workload is likely responsible for lower report turnaround times,” the experts explained.
They continued by suggesting that structured templates increase report similarities and, therefore, decrease the amount of corrections reports need before they’re signed off on. Both of these benefits translate into increased efficiency and decreased workloads, the authors noted:
“Structured reporting also seems to positively impact efficiency within a department when used consistently in the neuroradiology daily routine.”
View the full study here.
More on radiology reporting:
ARRS 2022 discusses pitfalls of radiologist 'tunnel vision'
Are video radiology reports the wave of the future?
Immediate radiology report access leads to influx of patient questions for 78% of providers
Experts call for more structured reporting after study reveals wide variances in radiologist reads
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.