BACKGROUND: Although the use of facilitated reporting to generate echocardiographic reports has many advantages over traditional dictation and transcription, it is not perfect, because physicians can still select finding codes that are in conflict with each other. METHODS: The investigators developed a tool allowing the creation of combinations of finding codes that should not be (contradictory) or are typically not found (inconsistent) together and then analyzed a historical collection of finalized echocardiographic reports to determine the frequency with which reporting discrepancies were present. RESULTS: A total of 96,772 reports were evaluated over an 11-year period. The frequencies of contradictory findings in final reports were 4.0%, 3.6%, and 7.1% for transthoracic echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography, and stress echocardiography, respectively. Nearly a quarter (24.1%) of finalized transthoracic reports and 10.1% of transesophageal reports had findings that were inconsistent with each other. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that facilitated reporting of echocardiographic studies, using a discrete set of finding codes, allows the generation of rules that can be used to identify discrepancies and alert readers to the need to correct or review their interpretations. Copyright (c) 2010 American Society of Echocardiography. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
BACKGROUND: Although the use of facilitated reporting to generate echocardiographic reports has many advantages over traditional dictation and transcription, it is not perfect, because physicians can still select finding codes that are in conflict with each other. METHODS: The investigators developed a tool allowing the creation of combinations of finding codes that should not be (contradictory) or are typically not found (inconsistent) together and then analyzed a historical collection of finalized echocardiographic reports to determine the frequency with which reporting discrepancies were present. RESULTS: A total of 96,772 reports were evaluated over an 11-year period. The frequencies of contradictory findings in final reports were 4.0%, 3.6%, and 7.1% for transthoracic echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography, and stress echocardiography, respectively. Nearly a quarter (24.1%) of finalized transthoracic reports and 10.1% of transesophageal reports had findings that were inconsistent with each other. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that facilitated reporting of echocardiographic studies, using a discrete set of finding codes, allows the generation of rules that can be used to identify discrepancies and alert readers to the need to correct or review their interpretations. Copyright (c) 2010 American Society of Echocardiography. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.