Here are five things to know from the study:
- Before the intervention, the department’s peak turnaround time for mammogram reports reached 198 hours, or 8.25 days.
- Researchers identified three causes for the delayed reporting: radiologist interruptions, a paper-based workflow and a “cumbersome” dictation process.
- To address these issues, the team implemented a batched, uninterrupted and digitized workflow for radiologists to follow, and set an institutional turnaround time goal of 72 hours, or three days.
- Radiologists reported their distraction decreased from 5.6 points to 2.0 points and their fatigue decreased from 4.8 points to 2.6 points, with the new workflow.
- The average daily volume of mammogram interpretation increased from 21.0 to 50.3.
The department met its 72-hour goal 14 of the 15 week-long intervention study period, compared to six of the initial 17-week pre-intervention study period.
Read the full study here.
