Abdus Salam, Saifud Din Saif.
Radiology request form; a neglected medical document.
Professional Med J Jan ;20(2):308-12.

Background: An incompletely filled Radiology Request Form (RRF) is a common problem faced by both radiologists and radiographers. Objective: The study was carried out to objectively evaluate the adequacy of completion of radiology request forin a tertiary care centre. Indoor and outdoor patient departments of POF Hospital Wah Cantonment. Design: Descriptive, retrospective study. Setting: Radiology Department POF Hospital, Wah Cantonment. Period: 01 Jul 2009 to 01 September 2009. Methods: A total of 1500 request forreceived by the radiology department from 01Jul 2009 to 01Sep 2009 were reviewed. These included requests for a variety of examinations from different departments within POF Hospital, Wah Cantonment. A database of the collected forwas created, noting which of the various fields were adequately completed. Results:Only 270 out of the 1500 forwere completed in full and 1230 were not completely filled. The only parameter fulfilled in all the forwas the presence of referring doctor’s signature. The commonest blank fields were as follows: patient location: 62%, clinical notes: 67.26%, doctor's name: 47.33% and date of referral: 14.2%. Conclusions: The inadequate transmission of clinical information observed in this study is typical example of the various problethat radiologists have to face.

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