A picture of the filing room in this room there are seven years of film packets.Having trained at a large City Hospital ive begun to think that we have got it easy, of course the volume of patients appear to be much higher (or is it?) and the workload appears relentless.
In the small community environment the demands on the radiographer and student seem to be far greater than those placed on the role in alarge City Hospital.
The first biggest difference has been highlighted today and that is dreaded administration role, which is not done in the larger hospitals by radiographers but by administration staff, the following blog will go some way to decifer how admin tasks are a part of the daily routine for those radiographers in a community setting.
P.A.S
Patients who are new to the hospital whether thatbe new to the area, toursits or visting clinics must be loacted on the P.A.S (Patient Administration System), this is a nationwide system which holds the details of any patient who has had any involvement with the National Health Service. In this setting it is used to obtain a patient number and the pataints NHS number.
CRIS (OLD)
This is an old version of the new CRIS system which is used in both types of clinic setting, in this hospital the old version is used to obtain the patients last attendance in this hospital before 2007, this will aid in the rerieving of film packets from storage.
CRIS (NEW)
This version is updated for 2007 and is used to access reports, write reports, previous history, and more importantaly to generate patient labels which are used on the request slips to place in a identification camera to labele the cassette, (more will be explianed regarding this later in the blog).
This software is also used to record patient exam type and dose, something I have noticed here is the different codes used here a code for a Chest X Ray carries the code XCXR, the city hospital has a code CXR, both sites record the dose although here an accumulative dose is recorded and not a dose per image.
Film Retrieval
As this site does not have PACS implemented the retrieval of previous images is done manually by the Radiographer, thsi is done by entering the CRIS number in the old system and finding out when the patinet last had an image e.g 2005 this year corresponds to a yellow barcode.
This code will be found in safe storage, the patints packet is located by birthday. Therefore you would look for previous films by going to the yellow barcoded packets and the pataints birthday.
In the small community environment the demands on the radiographer and student seem to be far greater than those placed on the role in alarge City Hospital.
The first biggest difference has been highlighted today and that is dreaded administration role, which is not done in the larger hospitals by radiographers but by administration staff, the following blog will go some way to decifer how admin tasks are a part of the daily routine for those radiographers in a community setting.
P.A.S
Patients who are new to the hospital whether thatbe new to the area, toursits or visting clinics must be loacted on the P.A.S (Patient Administration System), this is a nationwide system which holds the details of any patient who has had any involvement with the National Health Service. In this setting it is used to obtain a patient number and the pataints NHS number.
CRIS (OLD)
This is an old version of the new CRIS system which is used in both types of clinic setting, in this hospital the old version is used to obtain the patients last attendance in this hospital before 2007, this will aid in the rerieving of film packets from storage.
CRIS (NEW)
This version is updated for 2007 and is used to access reports, write reports, previous history, and more importantaly to generate patient labels which are used on the request slips to place in a identification camera to labele the cassette, (more will be explianed regarding this later in the blog).
This software is also used to record patient exam type and dose, something I have noticed here is the different codes used here a code for a Chest X Ray carries the code XCXR, the city hospital has a code CXR, both sites record the dose although here an accumulative dose is recorded and not a dose per image.
Film Retrieval
As this site does not have PACS implemented the retrieval of previous images is done manually by the Radiographer, thsi is done by entering the CRIS number in the old system and finding out when the patinet last had an image e.g 2005 this year corresponds to a yellow barcode.
This code will be found in safe storage, the patints packet is located by birthday. Therefore you would look for previous films by going to the yellow barcoded packets and the pataints birthday.
Once the films are retrieved they are brought to department and have the attendance year changed to a 2007 barcode colour which is silver as this is their latest image and will be filied accordingly.
The films are placed on top of the packet and placed on the Radiologists pile of work for reporting, another difference is the availability to a Radiologist as they only report from here twice weekly on the spot decisions are rarley made unless a GP from alocal practice is able to have a look at the images. Obvious Fractures for instance go straight to the fracture clinic at the neighbouring City Hospital.
Once the Radiologist has reported the film on a tape they are typed up by the Radiographer onto new CRIS and a report is printed of the radiologists findings, these are then placed in a patient information booklet along with the request slip, a copy of the findings are printed and posted to the pataints GP.
The films are placed in the fiilm packet along with the reports and request slip and the packet is then filed away.
Additionally there is the answering of the phone, in a city setting you only verbal conatct with the public is that of face to face , here you are required to answer the telephone.
The usual calls are those from pataints wanting to book an appointment for Ultrasound, Plain Film or questioning the time of an appointment.
The booking system is quite unique for plain film as the patrinets can pre-book appointments which suit thier time or call in at the department, and are advised that by doing this there may be a delay. M.I.U appointments take priority as there is a time limit on these pataints in line with teh patiants charter.
Ultarsound is alos pre-booked with teh Radiologist or a Sonographer who deals with the Pregnancy scans.
Diaries are used to check availability and make an appointment which are then keyed onto an online diary system.
All in all its quite a difference and thats only the admin side of radiography
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