Inter-observer agreement in audit of quality of radiology requests and reports. Export

@article{Stavem:ClinRadiol:2004, abstract = {AIMS: To assess the quality of the imaging procedure requests and radiologists' reports using an auditing tool, and to assess the agreement between different observers of the quality parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In an audit using a standardized scoring system, three observers reviewed request forms for 296 consecutive radiological examinations, and two observers reviewed a random sample of 150 of the corresponding radiologists' reports. We present descriptive statistics from the audit and pairwise inter-observer agreement, using the proportion agreement and kappa statistics. RESULTS: The proportion of acceptable item scores (0 or +1) was above 70\%for all items except the requesting physician's bleep or extension number, legibility of the physician's name, or details about previous investigations. For pairs of observers, the inter-observer agreement was generally high, however, the corresponding kappa values were consistently low with only 14 of 90 ratings >0.60 and 6 >0.80 on the requests/reports. For the quality of the clinical information, the appropriateness of the request, and the requested priority/timing of the investigation items, the mean percentage agreement ranged 67-76, and the corresponding kappa values ranged 0.08-0.24. CONCLUSION: The inter-observer reliability of scores on the different items showed a high degree of agreement, although the kappa values were low, which is a well-known paradox. Current routines for requesting radiology examinations appeared satisfactory, although several problem areas were identified.}, author = {Stavem, K. and Foss, T. and Botnmark, O. and Andersen, O. K. and Erikssen, J.}, citeulike-article-id = {2535181}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crad.2004.04.002}, doi = {10.1016/j.crad.2004.04.002}, journal = {Clin Radiol}, keywords = {audit, observer\_variation}, month = {November}, number = {11}, organization = {Department of Radiology, Akershus University Hospital, Nordbyhagen, Norway. knut.stavem\\@klinmed.uio.no}, pages = {1018--24}, posted-at = {2008-03-15 00:18:48}, priority = {2}, title = {Inter-observer agreement in audit of quality of radiology requests and reports.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crad.2004.04.002}, volume = {59}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - Stavem:ClinRadiol:2004 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2535181 N2 - AIMS: To assess the quality of the imaging procedure requests and radiologists' reports using an auditing tool, and to assess the agreement between different observers of the quality parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In an audit using a standardized scoring system, three observers reviewed request forms for 296 consecutive radiological examinations, and two observers reviewed a random sample of 150 of the corresponding radiologists' reports. We present descriptive statistics from the audit and pairwise inter-observer agreement, using the proportion agreement and kappa statistics. RESULTS: The proportion of acceptable item scores (0 or +1) was above 70%for all items except the requesting physician's bleep or extension number, legibility of the physician's name, or details about previous investigations. For pairs of observers, the inter-observer agreement was generally high, however, the corresponding kappa values were consistently low with only 14 of 90 ratings >0.60 and 6 >0.80 on the requests/reports. For the quality of the clinical information, the appropriateness of the request, and the requested priority/timing of the investigation items, the mean percentage agreement ranged 67-76, and the corresponding kappa values ranged 0.08-0.24. CONCLUSION: The inter-observer reliability of scores on the different items showed a high degree of agreement, although the kappa values were low, which is a well-known paradox. Current routines for requesting radiology examinations appeared satisfactory, although several problem areas were identified. IS - 11 JF - Clin Radiol OR - Department of Radiology, Akershus University Hospital, Nordbyhagen, Norway. knut.stavem\\@klinmed.uio.no EP - 24 TI - Inter-observer agreement in audit of quality of radiology requests and reports. VL - 59 SP - 1018 KW - audit KW - observer_variation AU - Stavem, K AU - Foss, T AU - Botnmark, O AU - Andersen, OK AU - Erikssen, J PY - 2004/11// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crad.2004.04.002 ER -