Table 1 Priority Pay-off Matrix lists different strategies to reduce respiratory motion artifacts and expiratory phase scanning.

From: Deploying Clinical Process Improvement Strategies to Reduce Motion Artifacts and Expiratory Phase Scanning in Chest CT

High impact

• Handouts with instructions to the patients

• Ask physicians to inform about breath hold ability of patients

• Videos for patients on breath hold before CT

• Ask radiologists to check and recommend patient call back

• Ask CT technologist to demonstrate breath hold before CT

• Ask CT tech to check breathing artifacts and repeat CT

• Teaching module for motion artifacts for CT technologists

• Checklist to triage patients based on breath-hold ability

 

• Do all chest CT on faster CT scanners

Low impact

• Remove automated patient instructions (API) for chest CT

• Ask CT vendors to create automatic detection of motion artifacts

• Increase/decrease scan delay following end of API

• Recommend a change of older CT scanners

• Educate CT technologists about problem

• Avoid scanning patients who will have motion artifacts

• Give motion grades for performing CT technologists (competition)

• Train radiologists to interpret chest CT with motion artifacts

 

Easy implementation

Difficult implementation

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