Influence of Royal College of Radiologists' guidelines on referral from general practice. Royal College of Radiologists Working Party.
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چکیده
OBJECTIVE To measure the effect on general practitioner referrals for radiography of introducing guidelines of good practice together with monitoring and peer review. DESIGN Collection of referral data during 1 January 1989 to 31 December 1990. Guidelines were introduced on 1 January 1990. SETTING Open access radiology services provided by one non-teaching district in England. SUBJECTS 144614 registered patients from 22 practices. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Number of referrals per 1000 registered patients for radiography of the chest, skull, spine, abdomen, limbs, and joints and for barium investigation and excretion urography. RESULTS Overall referrals fell from 88.4/1000 registered patients to 77.2/1000 after the guidelines were introduced. The commonest reasons for referral were for examination of the chest, spine, and limbs and joints and referrals for these fell by 9.4%, 17.5%, and 13.5% respectively. Referrals for skull radiography fell by 30% (from 241 to 168). CONCLUSIONS By helping general practitioners to be more selective in their use of diagnostic radiology, the guidelines reduced the rate of referral and thus patients' exposure to radiation.
منابع مشابه
Randomized controlled trial of the effect of the Royal College of Radiologists' guidelines on general practitioners' referrals for radiographic examination.
BACKGROUND The Royal College of Radiologists' guidelines aim to encourage more appropriate use of diagnostic radiology and so reduce the use of clinically unhelpful x-ray examinations. AIM The object of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled trial of the introduction of the guidelines into general practice. METHOD A total of 62 practices (170 general practitioners) referring pati...
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عنوان ژورنال:
- BMJ
دوره 306 6870 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1993