Outcomes following adoption of a standardized protocol for abscess drain management in pediatric appendicitis.

Background/purpose: Though evidence-based clinical pathways for the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric appendicitis have been established, protocols guiding management of percutaneous abscess drains are lacking. We hypothesized a drain management protocol utilizing drain output and clinical factors instead of fluoroscopic drain studies would reduce interventional radiologic procedures without adversely impacting clinical outcomes.

Methods: A standardized protocol was uniformly adopted at a tertiary-care children's hospital in April 2016.

Effect of Radiology Study Flow on Report Turnaround Time.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the importance of relative value unit (RVU) flow and other factors in report turnaround time (TAT) in emergency radiologic operations.

Materials And Methods: RVU flow was defined as the normalized (to 60 minutes) total work RVUs for studies performed in a given time interval of 30 minutes (RVU flow 30) or 60 minutes (RVU flow 60). Twenty-five weekday emergency radiology shifts each for four radiologists were randomly selected.