Impact of Radiology Information System on CT Scan Reporting Time

The medical sector values time when it determines life in its totality. Any waste of time, especially in critical conditions, compromises patients and puts lives at stake. From a diagnosis and treatment perspective, efficient use of time determines the success of procedures. Whether it be the inclusion of computing technologies or it be the implementation of informatics, the benefits of medical technology have been tremendous to the healthcare sector. This research has looked at the impact of the Radiology Information System (RIS) on CT reporting time in the King Khalid Hospital (KKH) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The approach of the study has been quasi-experimental, using the power calculation of a pair of 381 CT scan reports of 40,000 after which the data was collected and analyzed by using SPSS to deduce the impact that RIS has on CT reporting time. The comparison of CT reporting time is done between two distinct timeframes Pre- and Post-installation of RIS. The patients in the current study were organized into three primary categories: emergency patients, inpatients, and outpatients. The results show that the turnaround time was impacted positively with the incorporation of RIS and related technologies in CT scan patients. The outpatient department saw the most improvement among the three categories indicating the highest average percentage of reduction in Turnaround Time. Thus, it was concluded that the RIS has an overall positive impact on CT reporting time.