Radiology request form; a neglected medical document

ABSTRACT

An incompletely filled Radiology Request Form [RRF] is a common problem faced by both radiologists and radiographers. The study was carried out to objectively evaluate the adequacy of completion of radiology request forms in a tertiary care centre. Indoor and outdoor patient departments of POF Hospital Wah Cantonment. Descriptive, retrospective study. Radiology Department POF Hospital, Wah Cantonment. 01 Jul 2009 to 01 September 2009. A total of 1500 request forms received by the radiology department from 01Jul 2009 to 01Sep 2009 were reviewed. These included requests for a variety of examinations from different departments within POF Hospital, Wah Cantonment. A database of the collected forms was created, noting which of the various fields were adequately completed. Only 270 out of the 1500 forms were completed in full and 1230 were not completely filled. The only parameter fulfilled in all the forms was the presence of referring doctor's signature. The commonest blank fields were as follows patient location 62%, clinical notes 67.26%, doctor's name 47.33% and date of referral 14.2%. The inadequate transmission of clinical information observed in this study is typical example of the various problems that radiologists have to face