Your Donations In Action: Nelly Tan, MD

National benchmark surveys measure patient satisfaction with the radiology exam appointments, but there is no tool to evaluate patient and provider satisfaction with the resulting reports. While customer rating and feedback are standard practices elsewhere, these assessment tools remain largely unused in radiology. Their effectiveness at driving improvement in this domain is poorly understood.

For her 2019 RSNA Research Seed Grant project, Nelly Tan, MD, who is now an associate professor in the Department of Radiology at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, sought to improve radiology value and user satisfaction by measuring ratings of radiology reports and using that feedback to drive patient- and provider-centric improvements.

While working in California at Loma Linda University Medical Center, Dr. Tan and colleagues integrated a commercial survey tool into the institution’s electronic medical records and the patient portal. Reviewing survey responses, the team found that patients were generally very satisfied with and appreciated the quick turnaround of their radiology reports. They also appreciated having access to details, especially details beyond the scope of the clinical question, and having accurate reports.

Patients gave high remarks to the templated reports more often than free form reports. In a minority of cases, patients and providers reported errors in reports, and some patients wanted patient-friendly summaries and access to images. The details of the study can be found in two peer reviewed papers.

“The radiology report serves as the sole tangible product of a radiologist’s intellectual work. The research provides feedback directly from our providers, and especially, our patients,” Dr. Tan said. “It highlights preferences and small changes we can make to our reports that can improve patients’ understanding and comprehension of them.”

The R&E Foundation grant helped Dr. Tan validate the importance of this type of quality improvement effort. “I was a junior faculty when I got the award, and it was so helpful to have the funds to support the resources I needed for the study and to motivate me to keep moving forward,” she said.

For More Information

Learn more about Dr. Tan in her RSNA Member Spotlight.

Learn more about R&E Foundation funding opportunities.

Read our previous Your Donations in Action story.