Examinations, Protocols, and “Auto” Protocols

How is a clinical need translated into a specific imaging service? This chapter describes how radiology departments may try to satisfy the needs captured in the order by offering a range of services, how the details of those services are specified, and how they are translated into the Current Procedure Terminology (CPT) codes that are necessary for billing. Along the way it considers who may create an examination, and who should specify the “protocol” (and when), and gives some suggestions about how to keep those protocols safe and manageable.