CXR in the MICU

priority one 10 min.

STAT 30 MIN

routine 1 hour

 

At the university hospital: 15 minutes

At the VA: an hour, maybe 40 minutes if I can convince the tech that he should do his job

 

Assuming no problems w/ the server, ours usually pop up in 5-20 minutes. Sometimes a little longer and if it's been an hour, either the tech got lost going to the "developer" (which is actually in the MICU at our univ hospital) or there's a server-side problem and you just have to call and have them reload it. It usually takes way longer for them to actually get there to do the film than it takes for it to get loaded in the system.

 

Agree with lordjeebus,
almost a direct quote of what I was going to say.

 

city hospital in NY
in MICU

time: anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours
number of calls to the radiology department before the tech is "on his way": 2-4
on the floor: forget it

incidentally in the ER the time would be some what less, especially if there are severeal xrays to be done at once.

 

Stat pCXR in the MICU - with radiologist read, probably 10 minutes. Using the early viewer, maybe 5 tops.

Floor - with radiologist read, probably 30 minutes. Little to no difference between stat and and non-stat, and portable versus send the patient to radiology.

Our radiologist basically read as people are scanned/shot, so the time lag on seeing the image electronically and having the radiologist read is negligible. In fact, on my last month on the floor I don't think I ever saw a CXR come up electronically without a radiologist read.