Damaged Films in Diagnosis X‐ray at Trang Hospital

Abstract

This retrospective descriptive study aimed to assess the ratio and the reasons why
damaged X ray films had been detected by the staff of the x ray department of the
Trang Hospital. Under investigations were all sorts of films used to x‐ray patients
The total number of films the department was dealing with over the years were
57,077 films in 2009. The data was collected using record forms and for analyzes
descriptive statistics were used in calculating frequency, percentage, average,
maximum and minimum values. Altogether 5,024 (8.8 per cent) damaged films
were detected. The causes of the damages which amounted to more than 2 percent
of the total were wrong positioning (2.48 percent) and under exposure (2.11
percent). The proportion of the damaged film and the used films was 1:11.35.
There were 4,756.41 used films every month. 418.66 used films were damaged in
average in a month. When the damaged films were sorted out daily, there were
13.76 damaged films in average. 4,675 films were used for the same x‐rays. That
means 389.58 films in average in a month, and 12.8 films in a day. When the
damaged films were taken into consideration, the ratio of damaged films was 8.09
percent in average in a year and 7.66 percent of the films were damaged because
of repeating x‐ray. The recommendation was, therefore, that since there were
many damaged films in the hospital causing from different causes and that caused
the loss in hospital budget, the administrators of the hospital should seriously give
priority in developing and improving the operation of the radiology group.