> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Report an imaging study

> Open a study with its images, write the findings and impression, flag critical findings, and submit the signed report.

export const AuditNote = ({action = 'This action'}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--info" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      {action} is written to your workspace's audit log with your name, the
      record touched and the time — a HIPAA requirement, and one you can review
      yourself under <strong>Audit Log</strong>. See{' '}
      <a href="/platform/security/audit-log">Audit log</a>.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['lims']} plans="All plans" roles="Radiologists and imaging staff with reporting access. Everyone else sees the report read-only." />

Reporting is the point at which images become a clinical document. You open the study, read it against the indication, write the findings and the impression, and submit — and from then on someone will treat a patient from what you wrote.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Radiology Reports']} />

<TaskHeader before="A completed study on the queue, and its images available" time="5–15 minutes per study" after="A submitted report on the patient's record, with any critical finding flagged" />

## The reporting workspace

**Radiology Reports** has four tabs:

| Tab           | Contents                                                       |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Overview**  | Study Volume Trends, Status Distribution and Recent Studies    |
| **Reports**   | The report list, and where you open or create one              |
| **Analytics** | Modality Distribution, Completion Rate and Performance Metrics |
| **Documents** | Report Templates & Documents                                   |

Report templates live under **Documents**, and a house template is the cheapest way to make ten radiologists' reports read like one department's.

## Write the report

The form is headed **Create Study Report**, **Edit Study Report** or **View Study Report** depending on what you opened and what you may do with it.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Attach the study">
    Use **Select Radiology Study** to pick the study you are reporting, or **Add New Study** if you are reporting something not yet on an order.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the images">
    The **Study Information** card tells you what is attached — **\{n} images attached**, or **Study attached** where the count is not known. **Open full viewer** opens the study at full resolution, and **Study preview images** gives you a quick look without leaving the form.

    **Open full viewer** only works once your viewer has been configured — see [Connect your imaging machines](/lims/imaging/modalities).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Read the clinical context first">
    **Clinical Information** carries the indication and history the requester entered. Read it before the images; a chest film reported without knowing why it was taken is a worse report.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Record the technique">
    **Technical Details** takes **Technique Used** ("e.g., Standard protocol"), **Image Quality** (**Excellent**, **Good**, **Acceptable**, **Poor**, **Non-diagnostic**), **Radiation Dose** ("e.g., 5.2 mGy"), and where contrast was used **Contrast Type** ("e.g., Iodinated contrast") and **Volume** ("e.g., 100ml"). Marking a study **Non-diagnostic** is a finding in itself — say so in the report rather than reporting around it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Write the findings">
    **Findings** — "Describe the radiological findings..." — is the observation. Describe what is there, including the relevant negatives.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Write the impression">
    **Impression** — "Clinical impression and diagnosis..." — is the answer to the question that was asked. It is the part the referring clinician will read, and often the only part.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add recommendations">
    **Recommendations** ("Follow-up recommendations...") carries the next step — an interval film, a different modality, a referral. **Technician Notes** ("Technical notes...") holds anything about the acquisition itself.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Flag a critical finding">
    Tick **Critical Findings** where what you have seen needs acting on now. Saving then gives **Report saved. Critical findings require immediate communication to the ordering physician.** The flag also raises the study on the **Critical Findings** counter at the [radiology station](/lims/imaging/station).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save a draft, or submit">
    **Save Draft** keeps your work without releasing it — the toast reads **Draft saved successfully**. **Submit Report** releases it, with **Report submitted successfully**; on an existing report the button reads **Update Report**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  A report that has not been submitted is **preliminary**, and a preliminary report must never leave the building looking final. Do not download, print, email or read out a draft as though it were a finished report. Submitting is the act that puts your name to it — until then it is working notes, however complete it looks on screen.
</Warning>

## Critical findings are a phone call

The **Critical Findings** flag records that you found something urgent. It does not tell the referring clinician. Ring them, then flag it, and note in **Recommendations** who you spoke to and when. The toast asks for exactly this: "Critical findings require immediate communication to the ordering physician."

## Getting the study and its images

Three actions sit on the **Study Information** card beside the report:

| Action               | Does                                                                                                                                                |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Open full viewer** | Opens the study at full resolution in the configured viewer                                                                                         |
| **Archive to cloud** | Requests a cloud copy — **Archive requested — the study will upload to the cloud shortly.** If it failed before, the button reads **Retry archive** |
| **Download study**   | Downloads the study to this machine                                                                                                                 |

**Radiology report downloaded** confirms a report download. If you try to download before the order exists you get **Save the order before downloading its report.** — save first, then download.

<AuditNote action="Opening or downloading a patient's imaging study" />

## Check it worked

* The report shows as submitted, and the study's status has moved to **Reported** on [Imaging Requests](/lims/imaging/requests).
* **Reports Due** on the imaging queue has gone down by one.
* A critical study is counted under **Critical Findings** — and you have already phoned the referrer.
* The report opens from the patient's record with your findings and impression intact.

## If something goes wrong

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The form opens read-only">
    You have view-only access to imaging, or the report is already submitted and you do not hold the grant to change it. Submitting returns **You don't have permission to submit reports** — see [Roles](/platform/team/roles).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Open full viewer does nothing">
    The full-resolution viewer has not been configured yet, or the study has no images attached. Both are set up under [Connect your imaging machines](/lims/imaging/modalities).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The Study Information card says no images">
    The study arrived without a matching accession number and is waiting in the review queue. Attach it there and the images appear on the order — see [Connect your imaging machines](/lims/imaging/modalities).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I cannot download the report">
    **Save the order before downloading its report.** — the order has to exist before a report can be produced from it. Save, then download.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Archive to cloud failed">
    The button becomes **Retry archive**. If it fails repeatedly the bridge at your site is not reaching the archive; check with whoever runs it, then [contact support](/platform/help/contact-support).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I submitted a report with a mistake in it">
    Open it again and use **Update Report**. Both the original and the correction stay in the record — see [Audit log](/platform/security/audit-log).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="an imaging report" />