An imaging study goes from the booking desk to a signed report in a few clear steps: book and pay for it, answer the safety screening, find it on the worklist, write the report from a template, save a draft, sign it and, when a result is critical, record the read-back. This guide follows those steps with real patients and shows what to do when a signed report needs a correction.
Open Clinical › Diagnostics & Services › Radiology. The tiles count the studies Unreported, Draft reports, Finalised, Awaiting sign-off (unreported plus draft) and Unacked criticals. The tabs are Studies and Modality worklist.
Press New study. Pick the Patient (Zainab Tariq, MR-000047) and the Service (X-Ray Chest). The Catalogue price fills in as PKR 1,200.00 from the Services master. Referring doctor can stay Unassigned. Add Notes if you need them.
Open Safety screening and write the Clinical indication (for example "Persistent cough and fever, rule out pneumonia"). Choose the Pregnancy status: Not applicable, Not pregnant, Possibly pregnant, Pregnant or Unknown. For a CT or an MRI, also answer Contrast planned? with Yes or No.
If a service has no price, the form says "CT Head (Plain) has no price, so it cannot be booked. Set a price on the Services page or mark it free of charge." A user who may override rates switches on Override price, enters the Rate (override) (6500) and a Reason for override of at least five characters.
Choose the Payment method: Cash, Card, Bank, Online, Credit or Insurance. The Amount is the price plus its tax (1404 for the X-Ray Chest). Card, Bank and Online ask for the Bank account (Primary Bank). With Insurance, pick the Payer: a payer that covers 80% proposes the split, so the insurer is billed its share and a second tender, Patient co-pay, takes the rest (PKR 1,123.20 and PKR 280.80). Press Post & collect, or Save booking to book it unbilled.
Right after booking, the Imaging report opens for the new study with the Safety screening answers at the top. You can close it and come back from the worklist: press Open study & report on the row.
On Studies, each row shows the study and its body region (new studies also show the accession, for example "Chest · RAD-000024"), the Modality, the report state (Unreported, Draft, Final, Critical, Unacked) and the radiologist's name. On Modality worklist the same orders appear with an accession number, the patient, the procedure, the modality and the time, ready for the imaging machine to query. A signed study leaves that list.
In the report, pick a Report template: Abdomen ultrasound - normal, CT head (non-contrast) - normal or Chest X-ray PA - normal. The Technique / protocol, Findings and Impression fill in. Then choose the Modality and the Body region, and edit the text so it describes this patient.
Press Save draft: the toast says "Report saved as draft" and Sign & finalise becomes available. Until a draft is saved the button stays disabled and the hint says "Save draft before signing". Press Sign & finalise, read "Sign and finalise this report? Once signed, the report is locked and the study is marked completed.", then press Sign report. The toast says "Report signed and finalised".
When Require billing before lab/radiology result release is on, an unbilled study cannot be finalised. The toast says "This radiology report cannot be finalised until the study is billed. Bill it first, or turn off the billing-before-release setting." The draft stays as it is.
A signed report shows "Report finalised" with who signed it and when, and every field is read only. To add something later, choose Addendum or Correction in Addenda & corrections, type the text in "Add a clarification or correction…" and press Append. The toast says "Correction appended" and a card shows the type, your name and the time. Press Print / PDF: the sheet carries every addendum and correction between the Impression and the signature.
In the report, tick Critical findings, save the draft and sign. The row shows Final, Critical and Unacked, and the Unacked criticals tile counts it. Press Acknowledge read-back, type who received the result in Read-back by (for example "Dr. Kamran Yousaf, ICU, by phone") and press Acknowledge read-back again. The toast says "Critical acknowledged".
| Mistake | What you see | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Booking an unpriced imaging service | "CT Head (Plain) has no price, so it cannot be booked." | Set the price on the Services page, or use Override price with a reason if you are allowed |
| Ordering the same study again without a reason | Already ordered shows the earlier order and asks for a reason | Type a reason of at least five characters, then press Order anyway |
| Trying to sign before saving | Sign & finalise is disabled with "Save draft before signing" | Press Save draft first |
| Finalising an unbilled study with the billing gate on | "This radiology report cannot be finalised until the study is billed." | Bill the study first, or switch the setting off |
| Leaving Modality and Body region empty after using a template | The template text is filled in but both fields still read — and Select… | Pick them before saving |
| Item | Meaning / rule |
|---|---|
| Awaiting sign-off | Unreported plus draft studies |
| Safety screening | Clinical indication, pregnancy status and, for CT and MRI, contrast planned |
| Report templates | Abdomen ultrasound - normal, CT head (non-contrast) - normal, Chest X-ray PA - normal |
| Draft | Saved, editable, not released |
| Final | Signed, locked; corrected only by an addendum or a correction |
| Critical | Flags the study and needs a read-back acknowledgement |
Can I change a signed radiology report? No. A signed report is locked. You append an Addendum or a Correction with your name and the time, and the original text stays as signed.
Does a correction appear on the printed report? Yes. Print / PDF lists every addendum and correction between the Impression and the signature. A study with none prints without that section.
Why is Sign & finalise greyed out? The report has no saved draft yet. Press Save draft, then the button becomes available.
What does the read-back record? The name of the person who received a critical result, with your identity and the time. It closes the critical alert and is audited.
GridX HMS runs this whole workflow. See what GridX HMS does and what it costs, or browse all step-by-step guides.