Academic Radiologists' On-Call and Late-Evening Duties

On-call and late-evening duties have increased dramatically for radiologists, be they in private practice, at academic medical centers, or at state or federal government health care facilities. Most busy medical centers in North America require around-the-clock radiology interpretations for emergent or urgent patients, particularly if they are level 1 trauma centers. Coverage by attending radiologists around the clock is expensive and difficult to implement. In this study, an e-mail questionnaire was sent to 83 members of the Society of Chairmen of Academic Radiology Departments concerning general radiologists' on-call and after-hours duties. Detailed replies were received from 29 academic medical centers, all of which were university owned or affiliated. There was complex variation on how academic radiology departments approached their after-hours commitments, but only 10% of academic institutions (3 of 29) answering the survey had 24-hour in-house coverage by general radiologists. Coverage by attending radiologists around the clock at academic medical centers is not the current standard of practice at most academic medical centers.