Critical Results in Radiology: Defined by Clinical Judgment or by a List?

Effective communication across medical specialties is critical to the successful coordination of high-quality health care services [1]. Ineffective communication has been the most often cited root cause for sentinel events in the hospital setting in repeated Joint Commission analyses [2,3] and contributes, at least in part, to roughly 30% of medical malpractice claims filed in the United States [4]. Communication is of particular importance in diagnostic radiology, since the interpreting radiologist is almost always in a different specialty than the physician who acts on the information [5], and is especially critical when the finding reveals a life-threatening situation.

Source: Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR - August 8, 2020 Category: Radiology Authors: Karin Kuhn, David B. Larson, 2020 Radiology Improvement Summit Critical Results Workgroup Tags: Opinion Source Type: research