Quality of Completion of Computed Tomography Request Forms by Clinicians: A Simple Audit Assessing Local Experience
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Abstract
Computed Tomography (CT) request forms, an underappreciated medical document, are by far the most effective route of communication between referring doctors and radiologists. We aim at assessing the quality of completion of CT request forms by our clinicians, and to compare the completeness rating across hospital departments. From December 2019 to November 2020, we retrospectively reviewed 303 CT requisition forms from various departments at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, retrieved from the radiology departmental archives. Data generated was analysed using Microsoft Excel 2019 edition and Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) version 15 to determine whether the twenty-two (22) fields on the request form were filled out completely, incompletely, or not at all. Results were displayed in tables and figures. None of the CT request forms reviewed were completely filled, with only 3/22 (13.6%) fields on the request forms being adequately filled. These were patient`s name, ward, and type of CT examination. The most common fields with no information consistently were, the clinician's phone number and radiographers' signature. The hospital's accident and emergency department achieved the highest departmental completeness rating of 195/303 (64.4%). Requests for Brain CT had the most completed fields on 252/303 (83.0%) forms, while chest CT, 6/303 (2.0%) had the least. There is generally a poor compliance rate for completing CT referral forms at our hospital, and even though the completeness rating achieved by our accident and emergency department is far from ideal, it is nevertheless commendable, necessitating the promotion of departmental awareness beginning in undergraduate years.
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