Saudi patients' preferred modes of receiving radio imaging reports from radiologists, their impact, and determinants-a survey

OBJECTIVE: To review patients' perspectives regarding getting imaging reports from radiologists and the factors affecting their desired mode of receiving reports.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This cross-sec-tional survey was conducted in 2022 at a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia. Patients undergoing im-aging investigations were surveyed regarding re-al-time communication and delayed communica-tion for normal and abnormal reports. We also asked about the impact of receiving reports and their timing. We used a five-point graded Likert scale for responses. The scores of responses were correlated by age group, gender, and type of report.RESULTS: We surveyed 377 patients. 37.4% (141) of participants and 40% (181) of participants ex-pressed a strong desire or a desire to receive re-ports on the same day. The scores for receiving same-day abnormal reports were higher than for normal reports (p-value = 0.03). 259 (68.7%) pa-tients wanted to get the report from their physician. Significantly more patients with abnormal reports wanted to review them with their physicians than patients with normal reports (p-value < 0.001). Get-ting reports quickly positively affected the mental health of patients. 57% of patients preferred receiv-ing reports on abnormal findings within two hours, while 45.9% preferred receiving routine or normal reports within the same time frame. The value of ra-diologists' prompt reporting is appreciated by pa-tients regardless of the type of results. Females reported a more positive impact on mental health from getting a radiology report sooner than males (p-value = 0.028). Age group did not correlate with real-time communication, delayed reporting, or the impact on mental health. CONCLUSIONS: The desire to quickly receive investigative radio-imaging reports by Saudi pa- tients was complemented by reviewing the out- come with the attending physician, and it had a more positive impact on mental health in fe- males than in males.