The Current Status of Radiological Clinical Audit and Feedback on the ESR Guide to Clinical Audit in Radiology and the ESR Clinical Audit Tool (Esperanto) \u2013 an ESR Survey of European Radiology Departments

doi:10.1186/s13244-020-00843-0

Abstract

Clinical audit “according to national procedures” is a legal requirement as defined within the recently implemented European Council Basic Safety Standards Directive (BSSD), 2013/59/Euratom. A survey was undertaken in 2019 to assess the current status of clinical audit in European radiology departments and for feedback on the recently published “ESR Guide to Clinical Audit in Radiology” and the “ESR Clinical Audit Tool (Esperanto)”. The survey was distributed within the European Society of Radiology (ESR) EuroSafe Imaging Star network and also to European national radiological societies which are institutional members of the ESR.A total of 47/116 (41%) EuroSafe Imaging Star departments responded, and responses were received from 43 radiology departments from 16/48 national radiological societies.Survey findings demonstrated a low awareness of recent key ESR audit-related publications (Esperanto), a lack of clinical audit infrastructure for BSSD compliance and by inference a poorly developed local/national communication and audit infrastructure in many cases.Key stakeholders, including the ESR and the European national radiological societies, will need to continue to work with other bodies to further promote, integrate and to encourage resourcing of clinical audit at all levels, facilitating BSSD compliance and improving patient care.

Highlights

The European Basic Safety Standards Directive 2013/59/ Euratom [1] was adopted by the Council of the European Union (CEU) in 2013, for transposition into the national legislation of EU Member States by February 2018
This paper describes the results of a survey undertaken on behalf of the European Society of Radiology (ESR) examining the current status of radiological clinical audit in Europe and requesting feedback on the 2019 ESR Guide to Clinical Audit in Radiology and the ESR Clinical Audit Tool (Esperanto) at departmental level
A total of 43 radiology departments (28 EU, 15 outside the EU) from 16/48 National Radiological societies (12 EU, 4 outside the EU) responded to the survey distributed by the National Radiological Societies

Summary

Introduction

The European Basic Safety Standards Directive 2013/59/ Euratom [1] was adopted by the Council of the European Union (CEU) in 2013, for transposition into the national legislation of EU Member States by February 2018. The updated BSSD has important implications for radiology departments across Europe in terms of reinforcing or establishing a broad range of required radiation protection standards. Radiology departmental compliance with the BSSD and demonstration of supporting processes of clinical audit is good clinical practice, and a legal requirement following 2018 BSSD implementation. Supporting and promoting good clinical audit in radiology is a high priority for the European Society of Radiology (ESR), important ESR audit related initiatives include; the production of an updated clinical audit guide and toolkit (Esperanto) [3, 4]; the EuroSafe Imaging Call for Action [5]; an increase in higher profile dedicated audit-related educational sessions at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR 2018 - 2020)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion