Mount Sinai researchers initiated the study as part of the American Board of Radiology's practice quality improvement program to meet maintenance of certification (MOC) requirements, according to presenter Dr. Dana Rausch. They examined the report turnaround times for eight attending radiologists at two time points: the first in November 2008, one month prior to the start of a practice improvement initiative, and the second in March 2009, three months after the program was started.
The study covered 825 ultrasound studies in the first time period and 945 studies in the second. All studies had reports generated by voice recognition software.
The group found that the practice improvement program helped reduce TAT from a median time of 13.5 hours, from image acquisition to report, to 10.8 hours, a reduction of 25%.
The group believes that with increasing attention being paid to radiologist performance, programs to monitor and improve report TAT are essential. They recommended making radiologists aware of the importance of TAT as a necessary step in motivating them to improve report turnaround times.
