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Automated Patient Report-Generation in Nuclear Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine and St. Luke's Episcopal-Texas Childrens Hospitals, and the Texas Heart Institute, Houston, Texas

Correspondence: For reprints contact: Wayne L. Thompson, MS, Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner, Houston, Texas 77030.

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of computer-based office-management systems in the past few years has involved the private physician's office as well as the hospital laboratory. Many radiology departments have already adopted this approach for patient report generation and data storage. Due to the absence of commercially available software, some nuclear medicine departments will be interested in writing their own, but may not have enough experience in nonimaging computer applications to determine the performance needed for a practical system. A report-generation system for scintigraphic studies has been developed in our department over the past 2 yr. During this time an essential hardware/software performance level was established. Ideas for design of program flow that enhance staff acceptance of this concept are presented. Significant reduction of errors in report transcription and billing, together with reduced requirements for secretarial and clerical staff, make a general system like this cost effective.