The ultimate radiology checklist for communication test results

Clear communication is the foundation of any effective radiology department. From critical test results reporting to seamless care coordination with on-call physicians, the ability to exchange information quickly, accurately, and securely impacts patient outcomes.

In fast-paced clinical environments, traditional communication procedures often fall short and lead to unnecessary delays, errors, and compliance risks. To ensure that your staff can operate safely and efficiently, it's essential to evaluate your radiology management methods.

In this checklist, we examine the essential capabilities that your team should verify to modernize communication to address today's challenges and tomorrow's opportunities for better patient experiences.

1. Integration with existing systems

Modern communication tools should streamline information across your radiology workflows and reduce time-consuming efforts. To achieve this, consider:

• Do your radiology workflow solutions support multiple contact methods (phone, text, email, paging) to ensure reliable clinician notifications?
• Are alerts integrated with your existing Radiology Information System (RIS), Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), and Electronic Health Records (EHR) platforms to avoid manual data entry?
• Can your RIS automatically pull patient information directly into messages or notifications to eliminate redundancy?
• Is there bi-directional data exchange so updates flow across systems?

Together, these features create a basis for faster response times and better care coordination.

2. Closed-loop communication

A closed-loop communication process in your radiology department will improve patient safety, lower diagnostic delays, and ensure accountability. To know if you have this process, answer these questions:

• Does your system automatically generate alerts for all relevant test results, including critical, urgent, and incidental findings?
• Can you track when test result notifications are received, acknowledged, and by whom?
• Is every step of the process-notification, acknowledgement, and follow-up action-logged for compliance and audit readiness?
• Do you have a clear escalation path if alerts are not acknowledged within the defined timeframe?
• Are communication workflows standardized, documented, and consistently followed across the department?

Addressing these points with a closed-loop communication system prevents critical test results from falling through the cracks, allowing patient care to move forward without interruptions.

3. Active visibility for operational efficiency and compliance

If your hospital or health system has clear oversight, you're helping your care teams stay accountable and know exactly where things stand at any given time. To make this possible, ask:

• Do your radiology workflow solutions provide dynamic dashboards that reflect the most current information?
• Can you track active alerts through to completion, including escalation when needed?
• Is there flexibility to manually escalate or add recipients to an active alert?
• Can you easily access audit-ready information to meet regulatory and accreditation standards, such as The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety ® (NPSG.02.03.01): "get important test results to the right staff person on time"?
• Are you able to view and share communication trends, such as alert frequency by facility/unit and average time from alert to action by category (critical, urgent, incidental)?

Evaluating your radiology management system against these questions paves the way for a more responsible and future-ready healthcare organization.

4. Continuing staff education

Your care teams can only handle critical results as effectively as their radiology workflows allow them to access and send information. Key questions to assess your operations include:

• Are new hires given comprehensive onboarding on communication protocols?
• Are employees updated promptly when radiology workflows are changed?
• Is there a process to gather feedback on staff training to identify efficiency gaps?
• Do you have a system in place for improvement based on communication data and incidents?
• Can you identify providers who are unresponsive to alerts or have elevated response durations?

Investing in employee education leads to strong, more resilient communication tomorrow.

By taking a closer look at your communication workflows and ensuring that they meet modern standards, your care teams can thrive in a safer, more connected environment. Delivering care with greater speed, accuracy, and confidence truly sets the stage for better patient outcomes.