FILM REJECT ANALYSIS AS A MEASURE OF QUALITY ASSURRANCE: A CASE STUDY OF SOME SELECTED HOSPITALS IN PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Film reject analysis is a planned and systematic action necessary to provide adequate confidence that a product or service will satisfy the given requirement for quality of image or radiographs. In this research work, reject film analysis as quality assurance element will be carried out in 3 selected hospitals in Plateau state, Nigeria for different rejected film sizes in each case respectively from December, 2018- December, 2019. Rejected radiographs were collected analyzed and categorized based on body parts such as chest, skull, knee, lumbar sacral, shoulder, neck, femur and pelvis. The reasons for rejection were categorized as: Over exposure, Under exposure, Poor processing, Poor positioning, Wrong placing of anatomical marker, Fog, Artifact and Multiple exposure. The three studied hospitals (selected by convenience), H1, H2, and H3 are located in Jos and environs. From this study, it was observed that the anatomical part mostly rejected was the chest and the highest reason for the rejected radiographs was Under exposure. The reject rates of Hospitals H1, H2, and H3 were found to be 8.85%, 6.65% and 5.6% respectively which were above the World Health Organization(WHO) but within the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directorate (CRCPD) recommended permissible values of 5% and (5-10%) respectively. The findings imply that patients may have been exposed to avoidable radiation doses