Effective communication of critical radiology results: the implementation of panic alert mechanism

Objectives: to establish an effective channel of timely communication of life-threatening emergencies to primary physicians by radiology team. methods: the observational study was conducted at aga khan hospital for women and children,kharadar,karachi. data was collected from the log book from july 2012 to june 2013.amultidisciplinary “panic alert” protocol was formulated and implemented in the radiology unit. all radiological examinations were screened as soon as possible and panic alerts [provisional findings] were communicated to their primary care taker/relevant nursing staff,attendants within 30 minutes from the time of completion of examination. complete log was maintained. data was analysed on spss 13. results: a total of 22,474 patients were seen,and 77(0.34%) had panic provisional findings. the mean time for communicating the panic reporting was 19.5±8 minutes. implementation of the designed protocol,effective communication and proper follow-up resulted in 100% coverage of panic results. conclusion: life-threatening emergencies identified by radiological imaging can be managed effectively if alerts are generated in time. © 2015 pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.