To increase awareness of guidance on radiology results communication and of compliance with this guidance across UK departments. To give examples of varying methods and technologies which departments can put in place to facilitate communication.

It is the responsibility of: The radiologist to produce reports as quickly and efficiently as possible. The requesting doctor and/or their clinical team to read, and act upon, the report findings as quickly as possible. The healthcare organisation to provide systems, whereby as soon as a verified imaging report has been produced, it is easily available to be read and acted upon by the referrer, their team and other relevant clinicians.1 Communication failure has been shown to cause patient harm. Guidance on radiology results communication...

67% (154/229) of invited departments responded. Compliance with NPSA and RCR guidance 88% (136/153) of departments indicated that they had a defined policy in place for the communication of critical, urgent, and unexpected significant findings (compliant with NPSA guidance). 17% (26/154) of departments had an electronic read acknowledgement system (compliant with RCR guidance). However, in only 11 of the 26 of departments with an electronic acknowledgement system, was someone regularly monitoring the read rate. Therefore in 15 departments, although available, the result acknowledgement system was...

There is wide variation in practice across the UK with regard to the communication and monitoring of reports with many departments not fully compliant with published UK guidance. Despite the widespread use of electronic systems, only a minority of departments have and use electronic tracking to ensure reports have been read and acted upon. Methods and technologies which departments can put in place to facilitate communication Any department intending to upgrade or replace their RIS system should specify the need for fail-safe alerts to be...

K. Drinkwater , RCR Audit Officer K. A. Duncan, RCR Clinical Radiology Audit Committee member and Consultant Radiologist N. Dugar,RCR Radiology Informatics Adviserand Consultant Radiologist D. Howlett, RCR Clinical Radiology Audit Committee Chair and Consultant Radiologist

Royal College of Radiologists. Standards for the communication of critical, urgent and unexpected significant radiological findings. 2nd ed. London: The Royal College of Radiologists; 2012 Available at: https://www.rcr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/docs/radiology/pdf/BFCR%2812%2911_urgent.pdf (Accessed December 2016) National Patient Safety Agency. Safer practice notice 16. Early identification of failure to act on radiological imaging reports. 2007. Available at: http://www.nrls.npsa.nhs.uk/resources/?EntryId45=59817 (Accessed December 2016).