QUALITY ASSURANCE - A SYSTEM THAT INTEGRATES A DIGITAL DICTATION SYSTEM WITH A COMPUTER-DATA BASE

One of the most challenging responsibilities for radiologists is asses sment of the quality of care that they provide. Some parameters of qua lity, such as false-negative rate, are almost impossible to calculate with absolute precision. The issue is also complicated when one tries to determine exactly what constitutes a ''discordant'' interpretation. However, even when a radiologist discovers that a radiographic findin g was missed, or that an inappropriate examination was done, the steps necessary to perform an analysis of the problem can be very disruptiv e to one's clinical focus at the moment. This suggests that a major ob stacle to participation in quality assurance by radiologists is the la ck of an adequate infrastructure. We have integrated our digital dicta tion system with a personal computer data base for tracking cases appr opriate for quality assurance, thus allowing radiologists to log any e xamination from any dictation station in our department with minimal i nterruption to their clinical activities. Quality assurance and peer r eview are facilitated by using a personal computer for otherwise tedio us aspects of information management. Radiology departments that have a convenient, department-wide method for entering cases-such as a digi tal dictation system-are ideal for this technique.