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Patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) must be transferred between one hospital, seven miles away to a trust, for access to the V/Q scanner. The aim of this audit was to examine delays in obtaining scans and delays in same day reporting.

The methodology used the Same Working Day guidelines (National Diagnostic Imaging board (UK); the target was 90 per cent. The indicators were: time from request to scan attendance; time from scan to typed, accessible report. Data from 141 inpatient V/Q scans between March 2009 and 2010 were collected retrospectively. In the re‐audit 89 V/Q scans for the period of June 2010 to May 2011 were collected retrospectively.

In the first round there were 31 scans from EGH and 110 from StH. Overall 64 per cent of scans were reported on the same day. There was a significant delay in scanning EGH patients due to transportation. The introduction of voice recognition software was aimed at reducing the time between dictation and reports being available for viewing. CT Pulmonary Angiograms (CTPA) would be utilised more at EGH as it was available on site. In the second round there were 62 scans at STH, 27 at EGH. Overall, 84 per cent scans were reported on the same working day. This was a statistically significant improvement (p=0.001). Only 17 per cent of scans were reported after 12 hours.

Speech recognition software should allow a more efficient method of diagnosing and reporting pulmonary embolism, which in turn assists in patient management.