South Canterbury District Health Board.
SCDHB Radiology Department
RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
☢
POLICY MANUAL
Policy:
Prepared / Reviewed by: Authorised by:
Distribution:
Radiology
Date for next Review: October 2022
PRIORITY
Brenda Braddick
Nathan Taylor
Policy Manual
RADIOLOGY
REPORTING
Designation:
Designation:
Policy No:
Version:
CLASSIFICATION
Clinical Leader
Radiology Manager
Date:
October 2020
Date:
October 2020
P9
17
Date Original Document:
Review Dates:
October 1997
Objective:
To ensure all patient medical imaging requests are appropriately classified for radiologist reporting.
Staff Responsibilities:
As below.
Alert:
The Radiologist will phone the referrer when ‘limb and life threatening’ images are seen.
Process for Achieving Outcome:
ED or Inpatients referred to Radiology
1. Patients will be prioritised as:
DHB Regional Comrad
Pacific Radiology Comrad
Radiologist Examples
report
Urgency
Icon / Colour
Urgency
Icon / Colour
required…
URGENT
CRITICAL
ASAP/≤ 60
▪ Life or limb threatening
minutes
▪ Major trauma
▪ Dense CVA with
thrombolysis planned
▪ Suspected AAA rupture etc
REPORT
WAITING
≤ 60
▪ GP patient ? fracture
REQUIRED
minutes
▪ ICU/CCU and ED patients
▪ Afterhours CT that are not
red
▪ After hours ward
▪ Cauda equina
▪ Osteomyelitis
FLOW
PRIORITY
≤ 1 Working ▪ Inpatient – during work
Day
hours
▪ MDM patient appointments
▪ Report required for (non
ortho) clinics
NORMAL
NORMAL
≤ 3 Calendar ▪ Orthopaedic clinic patients
Days
INTERNAL
No Report
▪ Orthopaedic theatre
required
▪ Imported cases
2. Any ED referred ultrasound will have its interim, sonographer’s report, scanned into COMRAD,
which can be viewed by clinicians on
WebCOMRAD accessed via Health Connect South.
See over page for:
Patients referred directly to Radiology with concerning or incidental findings
File location:
JDrive:\\Radiology\Quality\DeptGuidelines\DeptPolicies
Priority radiology reporting classification P9
Issue Date:
October 2020 Radiology Manager
Page 1 of 3
South Canterbury District Health Board.
SCDHB Radiology Department
Patients referred direct to Radiology with concerning or incidental findings
3. If the MIT observes concerning images, the patient will be asked to return to the waiting room.
4. The MIT should discuss the images with the on-site Radiologist (if one is present). The outcome
may result in the MIT going to step 7.
If no on-site Radiologist, go to step 7.
5. The MIT will:
a. place a YELLOW priority urgency on the patient’s COMRAD visit,
b. clip the referral form to the yellow cardboard “Star” in the MIT Viewing Room to ensure
all staff are aware the patient is waiting, and
c. enter the patient on the reporting log.
6. If there is no radiologist report within 30 minutes, the MIT will consult the radiologist reporting
Timaru imaging, either on-site or by phone.
7. Once the radiologist has reviewed the medical imaging, the outcome being:
a. The patient is advised they can leave and their referrer will receive a report.
b. The MIT contacts the ED Triage Nurse to advise the details and directs the patient to ED
File location:
JDrive:\\Radiology\Quality\DeptGuidelines\DeptPolicies
Priority radiology reporting classification P9
Issue Date:
October 2020 Radiology Manager
Page 2 of 3
South Canterbury District Health Board.
SCDHB Radiology Department
AMENDMENTS PAGE
STAFF: Use this page to keep yourself familiar with the changes that have been made in this area.
Date
Doc ID
Section
Details of change
Prepared
Approved
/version
number
by….
by…
Jul 17
P9/12
Reviewed with formatting changes.
BB
NT
May18 P9/13
Urgency “Internal” added
BB
NT
Sep18
P9/14
Changes to the prioritisation for radiologist reporting
NT/BB
NT
Sep19
P9/15
MRI modality added, new step 6 for on-site radiologist
NT/BB/LF
NT
option.
July 20 P9 / 16
After hours ward patients at least yellow cross. During
BB
NT
work hours ward patients = FLOW.
Oct 20
P9/17
Inclusion of Pacific Radiology matching priorities and
BB
NT
MRT role changed to MIT
File location:
JDrive:\\Radiology\Quality\DeptGuidelines\DeptPolicies
Priority radiology reporting classification P9
Issue Date:
October 2020 Radiology Manager
Page 3 of 3