Radiology backlogs are adding another layer of uncertainty for some Pittsburgh-area patients: after an X-ray, CT scan or MRI, they may wait weeks for a report that helps explain what is happening inside their bodies. The delays reflect pressure on both imaging appointments and the specialists who interpret the scans.
Dr. Jerome Scherer, who has Crohn’s disease, told CBS Pittsburgh that he waited five weeks for radiology results during a flare-up. He said the delay left him worried about whether his disease was progressing. By the time the imaging was read, the flare had caused a hole in his bowel, and Scherer said earlier interpretation might have prevented the hospitalization that followed.
Scherer isn’t just a patient in this story \u2014 he treats them too, and he says he has watched the same delays play out with people he cares for. He described treating a patient in his 60s with an elevated PSA level, a marker that can signal possible prostate cancer, whom he sent for an MRI. The station’s report notes that the appointment itself took a month to schedule, and the resulting report took at least five weeks to come back. Scherer said he has had X-rays at Independence Health System, Allegheny Health Network and UPMC and found the experience identical everywhere \u2014 delays he called unacceptable.
Hospitals Point to a Nationwide Radiologist Shortage
Pittsburgh-area hospital systems have attributed the delays to a nationwide shortage of radiologists, per the same account. Allegheny Health Network described the delays as temporary, while UPMC pointed to the same workforce shortage as the cause. Some patients wait several weeks just for an imaging appointment, and radiologists themselves are taking as long as four to six weeks to report certain findings once the scans are complete, according to the report.
What local utilization data can show
The available evidence does not establish whether outpatient CT and MRI use in Allegheny County has increased over time. According to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, its quarterly county-level utilization reports track total inpatient hospitalizations and ambulatory or outpatient cases among Pennsylvania residents. Those reports provide an official basis for examining changes in local health-care use, but the information available here does not include a CT- or MRI-specific trend…