Trend in radiologist workload compared to number of admissions in the emergency department
Abstract
Introduction Recent years have shown an increase in radiologists' workload, both during regular working hours and during on-call. We aimed to quantify the 8-year trend in on-call workload in a large tertiary academic medical center, and to compare the workload growth rate to emergency department (ED) visits growth rate during the same period.Methods The number of computed tomography (CT) studies during on-call hours (weekdays between 3.00 p.m. and 8.00 a.m., and weekends) between 2012 and 2019 was extracted from our hospital's Radiologic Information System. To estimate the on-call workload, all studies were converted to relative value units (RVUs) using the US Medicare physician reimbursement tables. The Kendall's tau b test was used to assess the temporal trend.Results Overall, on-call CT RVUs increased by 52% (Kendall's tau b = 0.776, p = 0.001) while ED visit rate grew by 23% with a weaker correlation coefficient (Kendall's tau b = 0.323, p = 0.009). RVUs of brain CT, the most prevalent examination type, increased by 33%, while abdominal CT, the second most prevalent examination, increased by 70%. Thoracic-lumbar spine CT examinations increased by 1375% and head and neck CT angiography examinations (stroke protocol and CT-Venography) grew by 287%.Conclusions Radiologists' on-call workload more than doubled the growth rate of ED visits over an 8-year period. Radiologists, radiographers and on-call ED workforce should be adjusted to accommodate these evolving changes to enhance quality and safety of patient care and to avoid caregivers' burnout.
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An average radiologist now needs to interpret one image every 3-4 s to keep up with clinical workloads.
“Studies have shown that an average radiologist now needs to interpret one image every 3–4 s to keep up with clinical workloads3–5.”
From Self-supervised learning for medical image classification: a systematic review and implementation guidelines (2023) · cites this paper as [5]
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“Studies have shown that an average radiologist now needs to interpret one image every 3 – 4 s to keep up with clinical workloads 3 – 5 .”
BackgroundPerformance of AI to exclude normal chest radiographs to reduce radiologists' Workload
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- Authors
- Dan Lantsman, C., Barash, Y., Klang, E., Guranda, L., Konen, E., & Tau, N.
- Affiliations
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Barash, Yiftach
- Klang, Eyal
- Guranda, Larisa
- Konen, Eli
- Tau, Noam
- Venue
- European Journal of Radiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-04
- Volume
- 149
- Pages
- 110195
- ISSN
- 0720-048X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4210584794
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 8.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Radiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Radiology practices and education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Emergency Medicine › Emergency and Acute Care Studies
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Healthcare Operations and Scheduling Optimization
- Keywords
- radiologist workload, emergency department visits, computed tomography utilization, relative value units, temporal trends, brain CT, abdominal CT, spine CT, CT angiography, stroke protocol, CT venography, radiology workforce, burnout
- MeSH terms
- Academic Medical Centers, Radiologists, Emergency Service, Hospital, Humans, Patient Admission, United States, Workload, After-Hours Care, Tertiary Care Centers
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