Department of Radiology, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific Street, NW-011, Box 357115, Seattle, WA 98195, United States of America.
University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States of America.
Clin Imaging. 2020 May;61:84-89. doi: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2019.09.014. Epub 2019 Nov 28.
Patients and patient advocates express a desire to speak directly with radiologists, who are ideally suited to answer imaging-related questions and recommend for further imaging or testing. While web-based patient portals have improved patient access to reports of radiology examinations, they do little to help patients understand the report, and rarely facilitate contact with their radiologists. We implemented an alias phone number that forwarded to the smartphone of each participating radiologist and embedded it in 3896 reports over 8 months. It was embedded as an invitation to the individual viewing the report to call with questions. For each call received, we logged parameters such as call duration, call reason, and required radiologist time/resources. Finally, the call was documented in the electronic medical record. Radiologists received 27 calls exclusively about cross-sectional exams: 22 from patients or caregivers, and 5 from physicians. The reasons for the calls included term definitions, correction of dictation errors, findings not specifically mentioned, and clinical impact of findings. Time spent on the phone with patients averaged 8.6 min. When including the time spent reviewing the images, patient chart, and/or literature; the total radiologist time per call was approximately 13.9 min. Averaged over all of the exams in the study, this service added 5 s to each exam. While the total call rate was low, implementation of this program required minimal effort. The aliased phone number masked the radiologist's phone number and allowed scheduled consultation hours. Even when called, the time to address questions appears to be minimal.
患者和患者权益倡导者表示希望直接与放射科医生沟通，放射科医生最适合回答与影像学相关的问题，并建议进行进一步的影像学检查或测试。虽然基于网络的患者门户改善了患者获取放射科检查报告的途径，但它们对帮助患者理解报告几乎没有作用，很少能促进患者与放射科医生的联系。我们实施了一个别名电话号码，该号码可将电话转接到每位参与的放射科医生的智能手机上，并在 8 个月的时间里将其嵌入 3896 份报告中。该电话号码嵌入报告中，邀请查看报告的个人打电话询问问题。对于收到的每个电话，我们记录了通话持续时间、通话原因和所需放射科医生时间/资源等参数。最后，该电话会被记录在电子病历中。放射科医生接到了 27 个关于横断面检查的专门电话：22 个来自患者或其照顾者，5 个来自医生。打电话的原因包括术语定义、纠正听写错误、未具体提及的发现以及发现对临床的影响。与患者通电话的平均时间为 8.6 分钟。如果包括放射科医生查看图像、患者图表和/或文献的时间，每次电话的放射科医生用时约为 13.9 分钟。在研究中的所有检查中平均下来，这项服务为每例检查增加了 5 秒。虽然总通话率较低，但实施该计划所需的努力很小。别名电话号码隐藏了放射科医生的电话号码，并允许安排会诊时间。即使被打电话，回答问题的时间似乎也很短。
