Impact of digital radiography on clinical workflow and patient satisfaction

Compared to traditional film radiography, digital radiography is believed t o improve workflow and patient throughput. Digital radiography permits the technologist to immediately view the quality of the film directly at the mo dality. Additional workflow improvements, therefore, should be achieved wit h the integration of the radiology information system (RIS), To learn more about this proposed efficacy, a study was performed at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation (Cleveland, OH) comparing timings in three groups: traditional film radiography; digital radiography; and digital radiography with RIS int egration. Our data validated a timesaving of digital radiography over tradi tional or standard films and an even greater timesaving in a digital radiog raphy/RIS environment. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.