Unnecessary repetition in medical imaging examination and its countermeasures

  Objective  To examine current situation of unnecessarily repeated medical imaging examination and to provide references for governmental agencies to implement relevant intervention.

  Methods  We conducted internet-based questionnaire surveys and field interviews among 450 medical examinees recruited in 26 provinces across China from January to March, 2016. We analyzed the data using SPSS 19.0.

  Results  Among all the 426 participants with eligible response, the occurrence rate of repeated imaging examination was 41.82% and the rate was 21.43% among the participants in regions covered by pilot implementation of medical reform, which was obviously lower than that (44.79%) among the participants in other regions. There were no significant differences in the occurrence rate of repeated imaging examination among the participants in regions with disparate economic development, at hospitals of different level, and taking various kinds of imaging （P > 0.05 for all）. Of all the repeated examinations reported, only 15.22% resulted in alterative final diagnosis of the participants’ diseases.

  Conclusion  Repeated imaging examination is prevalent among medical examinees in China. Promotion of mutual recognition of medical examination outcomes and establishment of regional medical examination centers may play roles in sharing medical resources to control unnecessary repeated imaging examination.