Audit of Completion of Computed Tomography (CT) Request Forms at the Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH) of Zambia

Chanda, Enerst; Bwanga, Osward; Sindaza, Ncheebe; Chipampe, Mercy Nachalwe; Chisha, Mike

doi:10.55320/mjz.47.4.721

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…CT-scans were requested to analyse major parts of the body, including: head [65.4% (public) vs 56.3% (private)]; chest [11.7% (public) vs 21.7% (private)]; and abdomen [14.5% (public) vs 9.2% (private)]. These results further enhance observations reported by studies from Zambia and Saudi Arabia[6,15].The partial completion of the referring physician information had been consistently reported in several studies[7, 16,17]. However, available studies require caution in interpretation because they do not estimate the risk of incomplete documentation of referring physician information.…”

supporting

confidence: 63%

Prevalence of inadequate completion of computed tomography request forms submitted to public and private medical imaging centres in Ashanti Region of Ghana: a retrospective audit

Donkor

Wiafe

Adjei

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Introduction : Medical imaging facilities provide an important healthcare service under which physicians can make diagnosis and administer care and treatment to patients. However, computed tomography (CT) scan request forms submitted to medical imaging facilities are usually inadequately completed. The aim of the current study was to determine the prevalence of inadequately documented CT-scan request forms submitted to public and private medical imaging centres in Ghana. Methods A retrospective audit of CT-scan request forms was conducted. The study was conducted in two medical imaging facilities (public and private) in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, Ghana. The CT-scan request forms submitted between 1st January to 30th December 2021 were reviewed. Data was collected using an extraction form designed based on the literature. The data extraction form collected the following variables: patient demographics; clinical information; referring physician information; and procedure information. Descriptive analyses were undertaken. Log-linear regression model was used to calculate rate ratio and 95% confidence interval for prevalence of completeness across the CT-scan request forms. Results A total of 480 CT-scan request forms were reviewed (240 from each medical imaging centre). More than half (n = 121, 50.4%) of the patients in the public and 62.5% (n = 150) in the private medical imaging centre were males. The mean age of patients was 49.5 ± 19.6 year. The overall prevalence of inadequately completing CT-scan request forms was 0.752% (95% CI: 0.719–0.787; p < 0.001). Reasons for referral were documented on 391 (81.5%) of the CT-scan request forms, which was highest in the private medical imaging centre (n = 232, 96.7%). Conclusion The prevalence of inadequately completing patient demographic, clinical and physician information on CT-scan request forms is alarming. Efforts to eliminating barriers to inadequately completing CT-scan request forms will require deliberate organisational system strengthening.

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supporting

confidence: 63%

Prevalence of inadequate completion of computed tomography request forms submitted to public and private medical imaging centres in Ashanti Region of Ghana: a retrospective audit

Donkor

Wiafe

Adjei

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…On account of observed incomplete and incorrectly filled-in RRFs, the department decided to audit the adequacy https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/mmj.v35i2.7 of completion of general RRFs. In addition, the audit was supported by available literature that confirms that incomplete and incorrect filled-in RRFs negatively impacted the quality of medical imaging services 2,4,19,24 .…”

Section: Identification Of the Problem And Aim Of The Auditmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…The set standard of achieving all (100%) the RRF information completed or filled-in was based on the Roya College of Radiologists 4 guidelines and literature 2,14,15,19,24 .…”

Section: Standard-settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The justification principle state that no person shall carry out a medical radiation exposure unless it has been justified by a licensed clinician as showing a sufficient net benefit to the patient 3 . The referring clinician has a responsibility to complete all the information on the RRF to allow the radiographer or radiologist to undertake a risk-benefit analysis before exposing the patient to radiation 4,19 . The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) 13 argues that the importance of adequately completing the RRF is underestimated by referring clinicians.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adequacy of completion of radiology request forms at St. Francis’ Hospital of Katete District: A clinical audit in Zambia

Bwalya,

Bwanga,

Mvula

et al. 2023

Mal. Med. J

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BackgroundMost imaging examinations use ionising radiation which causes biological effects on the body. For this reason, only justified examinations should be requested by adequately completing the radiology request form (RRF) by clinicians. The RRF allows radiographers and radiologists to assess if the benefit outweighs the risk associated with medical radiation exposure. Inadequately or incorrectly filled RRFs leads to unnecessary radiation exposures, imaging errors, and delays in performing the examination. Therefore, this study aimed at auditing the adequacy of completion of general RRFs at St. Francis’ Hospital of Katete District in Zambia.MethodsThis was a quantitative study in which RRFs for general radiography from January to December 2020 were audited. Data were collected retrospectively using a checklist from a total of 974 RRFs. The filled-in forms were assessed for completeness of information related to the patient, examination, and referring clinician. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The standard of completeness was based on the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) guidelines requiring all the designated variables completed on the RRF.ResultsMost N=881(90.5%), RRFs were incompletely filled. With regards to patient’s identification, the findings revealed N=4(0.5%), N=597(61.3%), N=3(0.4%), and N=2(0.3%) RRFs devoid of patient’s name, hospital number, age, and gender, respectively. Regarding the examination, the findings revealed N=3(0.4%), N=68(7%), N=449(46.2%), and N=336 (37%) RRFs devoid of requested examination, indication, clinical history, and level of urgency, respectively. Regarding the referrer, the findings revealed N=135(13.9%), N=173(17.8 %), N=472(48.5%), and N=31(3.2%) RRFs were devoid of information relating to the ward, clinicians’ name, referring department, and signature, respectively.Conclusion This audit reports that most of the RRFs were incompletely filled-in at St. Francis’ Hospital. Furthermore, the hospital number, clinical history and level of urgency were the frequently unfilled variables. Overall, there were gaps in completion of RRFs requiring remedying.

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“…was estimated that 1.5-2% of cancer may eventually be caused by ionizing radiation used in CT. 5 This situation places an obligation on the community to review the amount of radiation set for CT scans and to improve the usefulness of the data for daily clinical practice. 6 The ICRP recommended that medical activities involving ionizing radiation should fulfill the three basic principles of justification, optimization and dose limitation. [7][8][9] Therefore, proper clinical audit, practicing justification and development of optimized size specific scan protocols is important to keep the doses at an appropriate level and to reduce the risk associated with CT examination.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of novel PCR-CTPP for simultaneous detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and identification of RpoB H526D point mutation

Intorasoot¹,

Butr-Indr²,

Phunpae³

et al. 2023

JAMS

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Background: Despite the fact that the number of CT exams is small among all radiography investigations, a high amount of medical radiation exposure comes from CT application. Most developed nations have adopted regular audits to ensure optimization of ionizing radiations in the CT examinations, but on the contrary, it has infrequently been performed in developing countries like Nigeria. Objectives: This study was designed to carry out an audit of CT examinations at two selected diagnostic centers in the South-South region of Nigeria. Materials and methods: This study was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted in two radiological facilities, which involved 210 tomographs of the chest, head, and abdomen, selected using a convenient method. The CT examinations were done using the departmental protocols and the generated data were analyzed statistically using descriptive statistics. Results: Head examination was the most commonly performed CT examination (56.7%), followed by abdominal 28.6 % and the least 14.8% was chest. The most common indication was a road traffic accident (RTA) 11.4%. The distribution of the type of CT machine that was used for the study showed that the Toshiba machine was used for most of the subjects 132 (62.9%) followed by Optima CT660 78 (37.1%). It was seen that 48.6% of the study used 0.75s, 40.5% used 0.5s, 10.5% used 0.35s and only 0.5% used 1s scan time. The effective doses were adult head (2.31±0.14), chest (4.65±0.21), abdominal (7.70±0.17), pediatric head (2.81±0.21), and pediatric chest (9.96±0.12). Conclusion: The carrying out of clinical audits is imperative to ensure both safeties of patients and diagnostic accuracy.

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Audit of Completion of Computed Tomography (CT) Request Forms at the Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH) of Zambia

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Prevalence of inadequate completion of computed tomography request forms submitted to public and private medical imaging centres in Ashanti Region of Ghana: a retrospective audit

Prevalence of inadequate completion of computed tomography request forms submitted to public and private medical imaging centres in Ashanti Region of Ghana: a retrospective audit

Adequacy of completion of radiology request forms at St. Francis’ Hospital of Katete District: A clinical audit in Zambia

Evaluation of novel PCR-CTPP for simultaneous detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and identification of RpoB H526D point mutation

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