Radiology appointment management in German hospitals: a survey of referring physicians

Objectives Referring physicians’ experiences with imaging coordination remain underexplored. This study compares imaging coordination experiences between general practitioners (GPs) as outpatient referrers and hospital-based physicians as inpatient referrers. Materials and methods A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted in Germany (June 2023–June 2024), including 220 physicians in the final analytical cohort (79 GPs, 141 hospital-based physicians). Results GPs had significantly more professional experience than hospital-based physicians (20 ± 14 vs. 7 ± 9 years; p < 0.001), with no gender differences ( p = 0.71). GPs rated the impact of imaging delays on patient care (4.4 ± 1.5) and coordination challenges with radiology services (4.6 ± 1.4) significantly above the neutral midpoint of 4.0 (whereas hospital-based physicians did so only for coordination challenges. Hospital-based physicians preferred real-time workflow tracking (34.8% vs. 9.0%; p < 0.001) and automated reminders of radiological appointments (20.6% vs. 6.5%; p = 0.006), whereas GPs favored centralized scheduling (33.3% vs. 19.2%; p = 0.02) and urgent case prioritization (42.3% vs. 23.4%; p = 0.005). Short-term appointment availability was the highest-ranked priority among the five evaluated categories by referring physicians, accounting for 25.0% of weighted rankings ( p < 0.001). Conclusions Scheduling delays remain a major barrier to timely diagnostics and reflect multifactorial system constraints. Referrer-specific appointment strategies may improve coordination across outpatient and inpatient settings. Critical relevance statement This survey identifies barriers to radiology appointment scheduling among outpatient and inpatient referrers in German hospital radiology departments, providing a basis for targeted strategies to reduce imaging delays. Key Points Short-term availability ranks highest priority across groups of referrers. GPs reported higher perceived impact of imaging delays on patient care than hospital doctors. Referrer preferences vary: GPs favor centralized scheduling. Hospital-based physicians prefer real-time workflow tracking. Referrer-specific interventions may improve perceived reliability of imaging coordination.