Radiology Research Development: Practice Quality Improvement: Survey of Referring Physician Preferences and Satisfaction with CT Colonography Structured Reports

radRounds (CHICAGO) -- Dr. Sharon Burton of the Department of Radiology at Mayo Clinic recently made a presentation at the RSNA 2008 entitled "Survey of Referring Physician Preferences and Satisfaction with CT Colonography Structured Reports."

In this research, a "Customer-Centered Culture (C3)TM Survey" method interviews were conducted with a focus group of referring physicians using four questions: “A satisfying CT Colonography report is one which…(1) Results in ___ (outcome) , (2) Is ___ (function), (3) Has ___ (feature), and (4) “What is your opinion regarding reporting of indeterminate findings in the colon and extracolonic structures?” Responses were ranked by frequency to identify key reporting preferences of referring physicians. A new CTC report format was developed using these preferences and components of the Consensus Proposal on CTC reporting. An on-line survey comparing referring physician satisfaction with old and new report formats was then created.

Dr. Sharon found that of 43% of referring physicians who completed the survey, respondents preferred the new format in reporting over the old with significant differences in satisfaction scores in 8 of 9 questions. The clinical relevance of the research is driven by serving the needs of the referring physician translates to better service for the patient. This survey method may be useful for other quality improvement projects in Radiology.

by Jennifer Larson
radRounds Staff Writer
December 2008