Purpose or Case Report: Radiologists spend a disproportionate amount of time at their PACS workstations, both in the hospital and at home. While many institutions have deployed basic ergonomic accommodations such as high quality chairs and adjustable desks, they continue to use basic keyboards and mice with minimal supportive technologies. Research in other domains has shown that providing workers with control over their environment can result in improvement in wellness and potential reduction in burnout, along with bolstering productivity. We aim to examine of the benefits relative to costs of giving radiologists control over the types of ergonomic equipment and inclusion of supportive hardware for their work.
Methods & Materials: We purchased a selection of different styles of mice, keyboards, strain relief pads for standing desks, along with alternate interface devices. The devices were configured for a designated PACS workstation, our PACS team pre-configured for initial implementation into our systems with mapped shortcut keys and intended interactions defined. Radiologists were offered the ability to test out hardware on the designated workstation or borrow equipment from the showroom to test for their rotation.
Radiologists were empowered to provide feedback if they found any of the offerings to be desirable to adopt use on a regular basis. The responses of the radiologists will be used to inform the future equipment purchases ensuring variety and personalization are empowered. Radiologist satisfaction and burnout were also tracked in relation to hospital collected survey activities.
Results: The successful implementation of an ergonomic showroom has had an impact on the work and quality of life of our radiologists. Giving radiologists the ability to customize their environment enables more efficient and comfortable work allows for reduced pain under increasing workload and volume. The radiologists who chose to participate in ergonomic changes have found the interventions helpful.
Conclusions: Accommodating the unique preferences and needs of the individual radiologist when working at their PACS workstation is critical to wellness and effective work. The duration of work shifts and volume of work are ever increasing and placing undue burden on the radiologist. While the availability of pre-configured equipment to select is helpful, the long term focus should be on better volume and workload distribution and forecasting to keep the work of the radiologist better balanced.