The operation of a radiology consultation service in an acute care hospital.

The operation of a radiology consultation service in an acute care teaching hospital is described. The radiologist acts as an active advisor in the structuring of diagnostic evaluations in three disease categories; biliary tract disease, nonemergency gastrointestinal tract bleeding, and abdominal mass. There was a 64% reduction in the time needed to establish a diagnosis and a 32% decrease in the number of studies for each patient on the consultation ward compared with a control group, which consisted of patients with similar clinical presentations. A formal partnership between clinician and radiologist serves two important functions in teaching hospitals. It can simultaneously expedite diagnostic evaluations and teach the best utilization of imaging examinations.