Applying Canadian patient wait time benchmarks to diagnostic CT examinations for non-small cell lung cancer in American healthcare
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Citation
Abstract
According to Byrne et al. (2015), longer wait times for procedures that utilize computed tomography (CT), such as imaging and guided biopsies for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), resulted in larger and more advanced stage tumors. In this study, patients had to wait approximately 81 days between those two procedures, and as a result, their prognoses and quality of life significantly worsened. Patient outcomes are increasingly compromised due to the current deficit and inefficient use of CT machines (Van Nynatten and Gershon, 2017; Nuti and Vainieri, 2012). According to the American Society of Radiologic Technicians (ASRT), radiology is a key component of quality care but fails to provide a standard to gauge the timeliness of care (2019). However, the Canadian Association of Radiologists (CAR) (2013) suggests that examinations should be categorized from “emergent,” “urgent,” “semi-urgent,” and “non-urgent,” with maximum time targets of 1, 7, 30, and 60 days, respectively. The CAR also suggests maximum time targets for report times, in order to ensure communication between imaging professionals and physicians remains punctual. In this proposed study, the Canadian categorization of imaging priority will be utilized in CT examinations for NSCLC in the United States to determine their applicability in American radiology. This is expected to reduce NSCLC progression and thus improve patient prognoses.
Description
2025
License
Attribution 4.0 International