Multi-author reading workflows: ConceptsTopic number: 1432816261333

Multi-author reading workflows are organized to comply with legal requirements, professional guidelines, and common practices.

Characteristics of multi-author workflows

All users who perform a reading task or sign-off task are registered as authors.
All participating authors work on a single report.
Only one author at the time can edit the report.
A new reading task is generated for each co-author.
When the initial author sends the report to a co-author, the report status changes to:
- Preliminary, if the user does not have the Can partially sign off reports permission.
- Preliminary or Partially validated, if the user has the Can partially sign off reports permission that enables The Save this report as option when the author sends a report to a co-author. The user can save a report as Partially validated or Preliminary.
Once a user has participated in a multi-author reading workflow, this user is excluded from this workflow unless a new task is specifically assigned to them.
Only the last author signs off on the report. That person is registered as the report approver.
All other authors are registered as partial approvers.
You can configure the number of authors in multi-author reading workflows.
This is reflected by the buttons in the task toolbar.
Multi-author workflows are not supported for addenda.
Multi-author actions are not available in reading workflows triggered before Agfa HealthCare Enterprise Imaging 8.0.0.

Types of multi-author workflows

Multi-author reading workflows can be parallel, hierarchical, or a mix of both.

These workflows are configured using the same workflow rules. The difference is in the user permissions and the task assignment.

Parallel workflows
No author hierarchy is defined. Any author can sign off the report.
This kind of workflow can involve authors from multiple specialties. For example:
- For PET-CT, a radiologist and a nuclear medicine physician are involved in creating the report.
- For CardiacCT, a cardiologist reports on all cardiac findings and a radiologist reports on all other findings: lungs, mediastinum, spine, and so on.
Hierarchical workflows
An author starts a report, partially validates it or saves it as Preliminary, then sends it to another, higher-ranking author for sign-off.
In some countries, the department head is required to sign off all reports for billing and legal purposes.
A typical example is the Resident – Supervisor Workflow, where residents are only allowed to perform the first reading of a report, and the supervisor signs off.

Process summary: Multiple authors for one report

An example of a multi-author reading workflow for a single report:

A user starts a reading task, creates a report, then sends the transcribed or corrected report to another user, the co-author. At this point, the report is partially validated or preliminary.
A second reading task is created and assigned to the co-author.

The co-author starts the reading task and, if necessary, edits the report. Then, the co-author signs off. The report status is Validated.

Note:

If the co-author does not sign off a report directly but first edits the report and sends it back to the author, the status stays as is. For example, if the author saves a report as Preliminary when sending to the co-author, and the co-author sends it back, the report status is Preliminary.

Many variations are possible:

The senior radiologist must have reports signed off by the department head.
The supervisor does not wait for the resident, but immediately creates and signs off the report.
The co-author creates a third reading task and assigns it to another user.
The supervisor rejects the report and sends it back to the resident.
One of the authors sends the report for review to another user.
The supervisor can perform reading tasks even if no resident report has been created.
An author with the permission to sign off reports can sign off at any time, even during the first reading.

And so on.