Experts are sharing a potential “wake-up call” for those who use radiology residents to read medical images.
Robert Optican, MD, and Richard Duszak, MD, detailed their concerns in an analysis published via Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology [1]. They highlighted a fictionalized true story of a busy academic medical center in a bustling U.S. metro area, which sponsors a 60-person radiology residency program in its well-regarded imaging department.
During overnight hours, residents review exams and dictate preliminary “wet reads” to help ED docs to make timely decisions. The next morning, two attending senior radiologists “batch sign” resident reports, allowing them to get a jump on their work lists. Residents can raise concerns about any tough cases, but rarely ever do.
“For these attendings, this has been standard practice for at least 10 years and has never been challenged by the department chair or department administrator,” wrote Optican and Duszak, with the departments of radiology at Duke University and the University of Mississippi Medical Center, respectively.
A second-year radiology resident becomes uncomfortable with this morning sign-out process and relays the details to his sister-in-law, a local attorney. The individual eventually files a whistleblower lawsuit under the False Claims Act, leading to a $7 million settlement with the government and $900,000 award to the resident for raising the concern.
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