Assessment Of Adequacy Filling Of Radiology Request Form By Referring Clinicians

An inadequately filled radiology request form (RRF) is a common problem faced by both radiologists and radiographers. The study was designed to objectively assess the adequacy of filling of radiology request forms from two hospitals in Enugu metropolis: University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH) Ituku-ozalla and Enugu State Teaching Hospital, (ESUTH) Parklane 

Method; Radiological request forms were collected from the archiving shelves and analyzed using criteria about patient data, clinical information and referring clinician’s identity 

A total number of 4158 request forms were analyzed, 2050 from the university of Nigeria Teaching Hosiptal(UNTH) Ituku-ozala and 2108 from the Enugu state university Teaching Hospital(ESUTH) parklane. Out of the total number (4158) analyzed, 3280 (78.88%) were inadequately filled by the referring clinicians while 878(21.1%) were adequately filled. 443(21.6%) were adequately filled and 1607(78.4%) were inadequately filled from UNTH while 435(20.6%) were adequately filled and 1673(79.3%) were inadequately filled from ESUTH.  Conclusion; Evaluation of the radiological request form currently in use at the UNTH and ESUTH revealed the existence of important omission and mild compliance with filling of fields requested by referring clinicians.         

Table 1a: Distributions of patient bio-data information inadequately completed by referring clinicians in UNTH.

Table 1b: distributions showing clinical information inadequately filled by the referring clinicians in UNTH.

Table 1c: distributions showing ancillary information not completed by the referring clinicians in UNTH

Table 2a: distributions of patient bio-data information that inadequately completed by referring clinicians in ESUTH.

Table 2b: distributions showing clinical information inadequately filled by the Referring clinicians in ESUTH

Table 2c: distributions showing ancillary information not completed by the referring clinicians in ESUTH

Table 3: distributions showing the number of adequately and inadequately filled request forms by various clinicians in UNTH.

Table 4: distributions showing the number of adequately and inadequately filled request forms by various clinicians in UNTH.

Table 5: comparison between adequately filled request forms in UNTH and ESUTH

A radiology request form is clinical document completed by a licensed physician stating what procedure or examination is desired. This document contains what examination needs to be done, why the examination needs to be conducted and on whom the examination will be performed. Also, inherent in the radiology request form is the clinical question that needs to be answered. The clinical question can come in many forms such as ‘’what is the cause of fever and leukocytosis in this patient” or ‘’is this tumour malignant or benign” or ‘’is there a fracture?’’ though this question is not always explicity stated, it is important that the radiologist knows and identifies the clinical question inherent in the request form1. A properly completed request form is essential for proper reimbursement and to increase the efficiency of the radiology requesting process. Pertinent identifiers such as name and date of birth are necessary in a proper request from. Also a succinct and adequate clinical history is needed for the radiologist to make the proper clinical diagnosis and for the health care provider to be properly reimbursed.1 

Radiology request forms are essential communication tools used by hospital and doctors referring patients for radiological investigations. However, their importance is highly underestimated2,6