Data quality of request forms for lumbar spine X-rays: A clinical audit form a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the data quality of request forms for lumbar spine X-rays. Data quality was assessed on the aspects of completeness, accuracy, and legibility of the request forms. Out of 185 lumbar spine X-ray request forms that were analysed, 13 (7.0%) requests failed to provide the clinical history. Thirty-two (17.3%) did not provide details on the region of examination. In the 172 requests, which included a clinical history, 167 (97.1%) provided relevant clinical histories for requesting lumbar spine X-rays and five (2.9%) requests contained non-standard abbreviations. We concluded that the data quality of lumbar spine X-ray request forms needs further improvement.