Radiation protection: Factors influencing compliance to referral guidelines in minor chest trauma

Abstract

• Most prescriptors order radiographs of the ribs in minor chest trauma. • Only few prescriptors are aware of referral guidelines. • Information on guidelines does not change their need for radiographs. • Motivations for ordering radiographs are rather legal than medical, but poor compliance to guidelines could also be explained by their unsharpness. • Radiation dose of rib radiographs was 38 times that of a PA chest radiograph.

Overutilization of Imaging Tests and Healthcare Fairness

“…The second main strategy is the implementation of appropriateness criteria (Oren et al 2019), and referral guidelines are developed that can be integrated into electronic referrals or used as a stand-alone web portal (European Society of Radiology 2018). However, it is challenging to make people aware of guidelines in the first place and then to adhere to them (Gransjoen et al 2018, Tack et al 2018. It is recognized that the referral decisions can be challenging for the referring physicians, and that they need more support from members of the Department of Radiology (Kruse et al 2016).…”