Columbia, MO November 17, 2014 – In Teleradiology, there is no standard for acceptable discrepancy rates. Nor is there an industry standard for discrepancy rates between preliminary and final reports.
Jamey D. Wright, MD, President of Argus and leader of its peer review process says, “Without an industry body or other requirement to report discrepancies, we do not truly know how broad a variation exists. We have been able to recruit and retain high quality radiologists, and this with our mission to provide quality, personalized services helps Argus maintain very a low rate of discrepancies.”
In an article from the American Journal of Radiology, a few reports of Teleradiology discrepancy rates provide insight to these rates:
- [1] Siegel et al. found an overall disagreement-discrepancy rate of 4.4%.
- [2] Soffa et al. found an overall disagreement rate of 3.5%.
- [3] Sistrom and Deitte found an overall error-discrepancy rate of 3.9%.
- [4] Stevens et al. reviewed numerous articles and found rates ranging from 0.4% to as high as 26%, with the majority in the 2–7% range.
Argus Radiology, using their RADPEER process, quarterly reports updates on their website of discrepancy rates over the past two years. Currently, the Argus Radiology discrepancy rate is 0.13%.
For a report on Argus Radiology’s Quality Assurance Program, please contact Todd Moritz (573-826-4076 or).
Reference
AJR: 197, November 2011
Argus Radiology, a United States based and privately owned Teleradiology/Telemedicine health care service company, is one of a few TeleRad companies to continuously display their discrepancy rates (ArgusRad.com).
Argus Radiology, a Joint Commission accredited Teleradiology company, provides radiology specialty interpretations of X-Rays, MRI’s, CT scans and Ultrasounds (amongst other modalities), twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for radiology groups, rural hospitals, imaging centers and other healthcare providers throughout the country.