Mammography Quality in Turkey: Auditors' Report on a Nationwide Survey

Objectives: To evaluate the mammography image and reporting quality in Turkey. Materials and Methods: One hundred sixty five units which provide mammography examination services were included in the audit. Samples of mammographic examinations conducted between July 1st and December 31st, 2012 were evaluated. Auditors completed web-based evaluation forms, including quality parameters and descriptive statistics on the patients and institutions. Results: Nine hundred eighty eight mammography examinations were evaluated; 47.34% of them used mammography machines less than 5 years old. Most of the older machines (10 years old or more) were grouped in private hospitals (22.1%) and university hospitals (21%). Mammographic image quality evaluation showed 56.1% non-compliance with the standard parameters. Private institutions showed the highest failure rates (P < 0.001), and low-quality images mostly (42.2%) resulted from mistakes in positioning. In 32% of the mammography reports, some mandatory information was incomplete. The reports were deemed inadequate in 59.2% of the cases. Conclusion: The audit showed significant deficiencies in terms of quality. We suggest investing more time and effort to train both radiologists and radiologic technicians to implement image and report quality standards in their units. Moreover, our study emphasized the importance of the accreditation of the units.