Following survey analysis, specialty teams found the procedural room satisfactory in providing timely intervention, however commonly found communicating the urgency of procedures with radiology trainees to be their main frustration.

Although 90% of NCHDs found the service to be satisfactory overall, 70% also stated that the procedure room casued some delay to patient care, with 20% stating it caused significant delay.  75% expressed diffculty in discussing new urgent cases with the registrars working in the room, as they would be otherwise pre-occupied with procedures being performed that day. They found, however, that once their queries were addressed, they would be discussed and appropriately triaged. 

Analysis from prospective data collection showed an average procedural time of 31 minutes. Prostate biopsies accounted for the longest procedural times (21 minutes for preparation in the room, 22 minutes for procedure), whilst liver biopsies were the quickest (16 minutes for preparation in the room, 12 minutes for procedure). Data was also gathered for port removals, however they were inconsitently performed in the room, thus providing limiting accurate data.

Despite satisfactory procedural times, the average time from patient being called to the procedural room to completing the procedure was 85 minutes. The increase in average time was mainly contributed to the wait time for patients prior to entering the room.

For outpatients, the average waiting time for a patient to enter the procedure room after arriving was 49 minutes. Most delays were found in attending and preparing the patient prior to the procedure, and waiting for earlier procedures to be completed. 

For inpatients, the average waiting time for a patient to enter the procedure room was 64 minutes. This delay was attributed to delays in sending for the patient, awaiting porter availability, and variable delays in patients leaving the ward. Once arriving into the radiology department, there was an average of 19 minutes waiting time for the procedure room to be available due to overlapping procedures.

The overall downtime between each case, when taking a 45 minute lunch break into account, was 36 minutes. The largest periods of downtime were consistently attributed to the start of the day and to the cases before and after lunch break, each averaging approximately 44 minutes. 

Common challenges identified included inefficiencies in preparing a patient prior to procedure, large gaps in workflow and loss of communication between radiology trainees.