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Workload Balancing in Emergency Night Shifts for a Multicenter Diagnostic Imaging Department: a RIS-Integrated Solution

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Abstract

The purpose of this short report is to illustrate the implementation of a RIS function for balancing radiological activities and workloads between two different teams of radiologists from the same Diagnostic Department during emergency nights and holiday shifts. One group is from the main hospital, Arcispedale S.Maria Nuova di Reggio Emilia, and the other group belongs to the five minor hospitals in the district of Reggio Emilia.

The implementation of a dedicated balancing function in the RIS system successfully allows the balancing of the radiological activity between two or more teams of different radiologists, while preserving the care continuity of care and the involved workers’ experience and confidence in reporting.

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Data Availability

The data could be available upon request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support in developing and optimizing the toll described in this paper of Luca Del Giudice and Andrea Silvestri from Elco Company.

Funding

This study was partially supported by the Italian Ministry of Health—Ricerca Corrente.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Physics Unit, Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale—IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, Via Amendola 2, 42122, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    A. Nitrosi, M. Bertolini, V. Trojani, R. Sghedoni & M. Iori

  2. Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale—IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, Via Amendola 2, 42122, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    P. Pattacini, L. Spaggiari, M. Zanichelli, G. Besutti, P. Notari, L. Canovi & M. Colli

Authors
  1. A. Nitrosi
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  2. P. Pattacini
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  3. M. Bertolini
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  4. V. Trojani
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  5. R. Sghedoni
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  6. L. Spaggiari
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  7. M. Zanichelli
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  8. G. Besutti
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  9. P. Notari
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  10. L. Canovi
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  11. M. Colli
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  12. M. Iori
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by AN and MB. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AN and MB, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Nitrosi.

Ethics declarations

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Institutional Review Board approval was not required because it is a Clinical Audit about a technical development; no patient data were used. Only data relating to the productivity of the radiology department in terms of the number of tests and execution or reporting times were used.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Balancing algorithm rules.

  • All the “ASMN exams Type 1” are reported only by the ASMN on-duty radiologist.

  • All the “AUSL exams (teleradiology regimen)” are reported only by the AUSL on-duty radiologist.

  • At the beginning of the workshifts, if the two on-duty radiologists did not yet report any exams, the first exam belonging to the “ASMN exams Type 2” is assigned by default to the AUSL on-duty radiologist (all exams of an episode/request are attributed to the same radiologist).

  • The following “ASMN exams Type 2” exam is assigned to the on-duty radiologist who has the lowest workload (SIRM based) at the exam completion time. All exams of an episode/request are attributed to the same radiologist.

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Nitrosi, A., Pattacini, P., Bertolini, M. et al. Workload Balancing in Emergency Night Shifts for a Multicenter Diagnostic Imaging Department: a RIS-Integrated Solution. J Digit Imaging 36, 1987–1994 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-023-00869-y

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