Fixing or merging a studyTopic number: 1425414974061

Manually fixing studies aligns patient and order information with unverified images. Merging images assembles multiple studies that belong to one patient.

To fix or merge studies, you must identify the:

  • Source study—Study to be fixed or merged
  • Target—Order to associate the source study with or the study to merge the source study into

Fixing studies consists of associating unverified source study images with an empty order that contains the appropriate patient and order information. This might apply, for example, when temporary patient data is assigned in an emergency situation.

Merging studies consists of combining images for two studies into one master study (target). This might be needed when images meant to be taken as one study were accidentally divided into two studies for that patient.

Important!

If the target study is linked to a paused or in-progress task, you cannot fix or merge the source study.
To fix or merge a study
  1. From a task or search results list, right-click the study to fix or merge and select QC task > Start QC task. Red Q

    Whether QC tasks appear in your To Do list depends on the task assignment group you belong to.

  2. From the QC action list, ensure that Fix/Merge is selected.
  3. Using the Target search criteria, search for the target study or order.

    For unverified studies, the system automatically provides the results of searching on the patient first and last name. For verified studies, the system automatically searches on patient ID and modality type.

  4. Optionally, to overrule the default lookup of target studies:
    1. Right-click the target search fields and select Customize fields.
    2. Select an item in the Displayed fields pane and click the Details on the selected data element link.
    3. Under Prefill, select No prefill, Value from source, or type a custom value.
      • For a verified patient, Value from source is selected by default for the following fields: Patient ID, Modality type, and Patient date of birth.
      • For an unverified patient, Value from source is selected by default for the following fields: Patient first name, Patient last name, and Patient date of birth.
    4. Save the settings at the user, desktop profile, or system level.
  5. Select the target option to fix or merge the source study with.
  6. In the top toolbar, click Fix/Merge. Fix/Merge

    (If you change your mind about performing QC on this study, you can select No QC required instead.)

  7. If the source study and, potentially, also the target study have a report, do one of the following:
    • If only the source study has a report, optionally move the report to the target study. Select Move source report to target.
    • If both the source and the target study have a report, you must do one of the following:
      • Select Keep both reports.
      • Select Move source report to target.

        In this case, the target study report is overwritten with the report from the source study.

    If report versioning is enabled:

    • Previous versions of the source study report remain with the source study.
    • Previous versions of the target study report remain with the target study.

    Note:

    Moving reports from the source to the target study is not possible for reports that were created using external, third-party reporting tools.

  8. To confirm your selection, click Fix/Merge.

The selected study is now manually fixed or merged.

If the study did not have a report, the reading workflow is triggered. If your administrator configured the verify review workflow, then, for studies with a validated report, a verify report task is created. For studies with a not validated report, a task comment appears saying to verify the report content.

Required permissions: Can perform QC fix/merge.

(For more on permissions, see Security roles: Concepts.)