Boland Giles W L, Houghton Margaret P, Marchione David G, McCormick William
Departmentof Radiology, White Building 270C, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
J Am Coll Radiol. 2008 Feb;5(2):119-25. doi: 10.1016/j.jacr.2007.07.009.
A key radiology stakeholder demand is to increase patient access to computed tomography (CT) and reduce waiting lists. However, the number of patients that a single technologist can scan is limited because of the many tasks required to process a patient through a CT scan. However, many tasks could be performed simultaneously by using additional personnel. This study evaluated how many additional patients can be scanned using a 2- or 3-technologist model with outpatient multidetector CT and its impact on CT capacity.
The number and type of individual technologist tasks were initially evaluated. The time to perform these tasks was then measured using 1-, 2-, and 3-technologist models, including the time a patient was within the CT scanner room, to determine the hourly patient throughput on a CT scanner. Two theoretic CT operations were then developed to evaluate the impact on CT capacity.
Thirty-four technologist workflow tasks were identified. A total of 205 outpatients were evaluated. The total time to perform all tasks for 1-, 2-, and 3-technologist models was 27, 23, and 22 minutes, respectively. CT room time per patient for 1-, 2-, and 3-technologist models was 12, 9.7, and 8.0 minutes, respectively. However, the number of patients scanned per hour for 1-, 2-, and 3-technologist models was 2.2, 5.2, and 7.5, respectively. There was an increase of more than 12,000 potential patient CT slots made available using 2 technologists 7 days per week and 22,000 additional slots for a 3-technologist model when compared with a single-technologist model on weekdays only.
A single-technologist model for outpatient multidetector CT is inefficient with limited opportunity for increased patient throughput. The use of multiple technologists (or other key personnel) optimizes CT throughput and capacity, particularly with a 3-technologist model, which can yield a greater than three-fold increase in CT productivity.
放射学关键利益相关者的一项主要需求是增加患者使用计算机断层扫描（CT）的机会并减少等候名单。然而，由于在CT扫描过程中处理一名患者需要完成多项任务，单个技术人员能够扫描的患者数量有限。不过，许多任务可以通过增加人员来同时进行。本研究评估了采用两名或三名技术人员模式进行门诊多排CT扫描时能够多扫描多少患者，以及这对CT扫描能力的影响。
首先评估单个技术人员任务的数量和类型。然后使用一名、两名和三名技术人员模式测量执行这些任务的时间，包括患者在CT扫描室内的时间，以确定CT扫描仪每小时的患者扫描量。随后制定了两种理论上的CT操作方式，以评估对CT扫描能力的影响。
确定了34项技术人员工作流程任务。共评估了205名门诊患者。一名、两名和三名技术人员模式执行所有任务的总时间分别为27分钟、23分钟和22分钟。一名、两名和三名技术人员模式下每位患者的CT室时间分别为12分钟、9.7分钟和8.0分钟。然而，一名、两名和三名技术人员模式每小时扫描的患者数量分别为2.2名、5.2名和7.5名。与仅在工作日采用单技术人员模式相比，每周7天采用两名技术人员模式可增加超过12000个潜在患者CT扫描时段，采用三名技术人员模式则可增加22000个额外时段。
门诊多排CT的单技术人员模式效率低下，提高患者扫描量的机会有限。使用多名技术人员（或其他关键人员）可优化CT扫描量和扫描能力，特别是采用三名技术人员模式时，CT生产率可提高三倍以上。
