Communicating Critical Results

A critical-result communication is required when a radiologist’s findings must be delivered to the referring physician in a timely way, and when the delivery of these findings must be confirmed. The findings (for example, a tension pneumothorax) are delivered sooner than the usual process of dictation, transcription, verification, and report distribution. You use the Critical Results feature to record the follow-up actions you took to communicate these findings to the referring physician.

It is strongly recommended that the radiologist expedite notification of critical findings to the referring physician in a manner that reasonably ensures timely receipt of the findings. It is also recommended that the radiologist rely on an explicit response from the referring physician to confirm that the critical-result communication was successful.

To use this feature, ask your PACS administrator to enable the Communicate Critical Results privilege in your user account.