Keywords:
Health policy and practice, Ultrasound, CT, Emergency, Audit and standards, Workforce
Authors:
A. Murchison, M. Chen, P. C. Lyon, S. Rehman, D. Grant, S. Gargalas, S. A. Nazir; Oxford/UK
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-2253
Methods and materials
We collected qualitative data on registrar experience and quantitative data on workload in a 2-part audit.
Part 1
The number of inpatient and emergency department CT and ultrasound scans reported out-of-hours by radiologists over the last ten years at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust was retrieved from the Radiology Information System. Additional data were collected regarding the time at which the report was created,
and whether the scan was reported by a trainee or a consultant.
The results were analyzed by creating a Visual Basic macro in Excel to find how many scans were reported per shift and whether they were reported by a trainee or consultant.
The macro generated figures showing trends over the ten-year period.
Part 2
As part of a two-month proforma-based (see Fig.
2 for the proforma) monitoring exercise,
the on-call radiology registrars were asked to report their workload and rate shift difficulty. Changes were implemented after the first audit cycle including the introduction to the rota of an additional senior registrar to cover evening shifts,
resulting in a total of two senior and one junior registrar.
The monitoring exercise was repeated after one year.