Unnecessary telephone calls to reporting radiologists impede organizations' workflow and may be associated with a higher chance of errors in reports. We conducted a prospective study in two cycles, which identified vetting plain CT heads as the most common reason for these calls and vetting CT urinary tracts (KUB) was also frequent. Clear vetting and protocolling guidelines exist for both of these scans, which do not routinely require discussion with a radiologist. Therefore, our approach was to create new flow diagrams to allow radiographers to directly accept routine requests for plain CT head and CT KUB scans in- and out-of-hours. After this intervention, incoming calls to radiology for vetting CT heads decreased by 30% and for vetting CT KUBs by 100%. The average wait time between CT head request and scan completion was reduced by 40%. The number of CT head and CT KUB scans performed remained stable. In future, maximizing the benefit of direct access in-patient imaging pathways will rely on effective and sustained communication of the protocols to the junior clinical staff rotating through the organization, as they were responsible for requesting the vast majority of tests.
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