EXPLAINING VARIATION IN RADIOLOGISTS REPORTING TIMES

This paper describes an investigation into the reasons for variation i n the time taken by senior radiologists to complete radiological repor ts. An observational study of the reporting process at one UK hospital was undertaken for a 25 day period. An independent health service res earcher observed the radiology reporting process and collected data on a variety of factors including the time taken to produce the report, the number and nature of all images viewed, the experience of the radi ologist, and the number of disturbances that occurred. The nature of t he variation in reporting time was explored using both simple comparat ive statistics and more sophisticated multiple regression techniques. Data were collected on 2345 report observations and the median report time was 117 s. This research provides the first empirical evidence fo r systematic variation in reporting time. The results confirm the impo rtance of certain factors that were expected to explain report time va riation. For example, the results indicate that report time tended to be significantly shorter in reporting sessions that were busy: and sig nificantly longer when the radiologist was disturbed during the report ing process or was training juniors during a reporting session. More s urprising were the results indicating that there was no significant di fference in report time for reports categorized as urgent or ''hot'' a nd those categorized as less urgent or ''cold'', and that report time appeared to vary systematically depending on the day of the week and o n the time of day.