Which of the following identifiers are required by law to be included on a radiographic image?

Which of the following identifiers are required by law to be included on a radiographic image?

• A. Exposure indicator
• B. Patient's social security number
• C. Date of examination
• D. Referring physician's name

Answer: (C)

The date of examination is the information that must appear on a radiographic image to provide a definite timestamp tied to the patient’s visit. This dating ensures proper record keeping, enables accurate matching of images to the correct study and patient history, and supports regulatory and quality-control processes. While exposure indicators are important for assessing image quality and dose, they are not universally mandated by law to be included on every image. A patient’s social security number is not used on radiographs due to privacy protections. The referring physician’s name may be helpful for workflow in some settings but is not a legal requirement on the image itself.

The date of examination is the information that must appear on a radiographic image to provide a definite timestamp tied to the patient’s visit. This dating ensures proper record keeping, enables accurate matching of images to the correct study and patient history, and supports regulatory and quality-control processes. While exposure indicators are important for assessing image quality and dose, they are not universally mandated by law to be included on every image. A patient’s social security number is not used on radiographs due to privacy protections. The referring physician’s name may be helpful for workflow in some settings but is not a legal requirement on the image itself.