 'Whew!" August was quite a month. And I thought that it was supposed to be the quiet month with not too much happening. Perhaps I missed the inflection because, while that may be true most years, this past August saw an unprecidented flurry of activity for MRI planning and safety.
First, we're thrilled to announce a complete reworking of our website, www.MRI-Planning.com. The website now has expanded information about MRI planning, design, construction, operation and safety. We hope that it will serve as your first stop when gathering information about hiring an architect, selecting a contractor, planning a multi-modal suite, or even when looking for products to help keep your MRI suite safe. Please take a good look at the new site.
Second, Tobias Gilk and I spoke at the annual meeting of the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators (AHRA) in San Antonio. Actually, gave two, both presentations on planning better, safer, and more efficient MRI facilities. Thank you to AHRA and our attendees, and a special thank you to Ansul and Mednovus, our sponsors for our presentations. We drew two names from the attendees of our sessions to award free Suite Safety Audits. Read below under 'News Bite' for the winners!
Next, the New York Times ran an article about the increasing number of MRI accidents on their front page on Friday, August 19th. The article featured my colleague, Tobias Gilk. Many local and regional papers around the globe subscribe to the New York Times news service, so you may have seen versions of the article in your local paper.
Clearly, the story struck a nerve, because on the following Monday, Good Morning America did a follow-up piece, citing the New York Times article, that featured Dr. Emanuel Kanal, FACR and medical physicist, Moriel NessAiver, P.hD.
By pure coincidence, the morning that the New York Times article came out, we were deliving a presentation to the Mid-America Regional Council's working group for Emergency Responders, detailling MRI safety issues for police, fire and paramedic responders.
And during all of this media flurry, we have been busy preparing for our program on Universal Imaging Suite Design for the National Symposium on Healthcare Design in September. We hope to see many of you readers at the Symposium and in our breakout session.
As always, we hope that you will contact us if you have any questions about anything you read in the newsletter, or if we can be of any assistance to you.
Robert Junk, AIA, AHRA
Junk Architects, PC
Invite Your Friends & Colleagues.
We are always pleased to share the newsletter with your friends. If you would like to invite a colleague to receive the complimentary version of the MRI Newsletter, please let us know and we will extend an invitation to them on your behalf.
Click here to refer a friend
Join Us At The National Symposium on Healthcare Design! Join us Tuesday morning, September 27th, for our presentation 'Universal Imaging Suite Design' which will provide information on the development of a single imaging suite design that can accommodate CT, MRI or PET, allowing for cost-effective modality trades throughout the life of the facility.We're honored to have been asked back to the National Symposium on Healthcare Design and we hope that you're able to join us there.
Click below to be taken to
www.HCareDesign.com (annual meeting page)
AHRA Recap.
Again, we were blown away by the AHRA conference. The response we received to our presentations was spectacular. We're also thrilled to announce the winners of our drawings for complimentary Suite Safety Audits, valued at nearly $10,000! Since we gave two presentations this year, we selected two winners: Thomas Kelly of CDI's Winter Park Florida location, and James Carter of Kaiser Permanente's Southern California Medical Group in Los Angeles! Congratulations to both winners!
This year's presentations were graciously sponsored by the new MR-Safe fire extinguisher, Cleanguard® FE13NM by Ansul, with additional underwriting from the SafeScan® family of MRI suite ferromagnetic detectors from Mednovus.
MRI Newsletter - Article Archive Is Now On Line!
Don't forget that we now have the archive of previous MRI Newsletter articles available. Click here to see all the articles that are available.
While the archive index is available to everyone, only subscribers will be able to access the full text of the articles, except the published public issues.
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Hurricane Katrina:
MRI Quench Safety Alert
By Robert Junk, AIA, AHRA and Tobias Gilk
Warning: Your magnet could quench at any time! This is the message that needs to be conveyed to all MRI's that haven't already quenched but have been without power since hurricane Katrina struck. MRI operators and techs need to strictly control access to the area of quench discharge (frequently a rooftop) until the magnet either quenches or until power has been restored and the magnet is stabilized. If you need additional information on these risks, please contact us by calling 816-472-7722 or by clicking here to send an email.
A Shocking Story Of Static Discharge:
The Epilogue.
By Robert Junk, AIA, AHRA and Tobias Gilk
Two months ago we featured an article on static electricity damage to MRI equipment at a client site. The problem had gotten bad enough that the techs could sometimes see blue static electric sparks leaping from their fingertips to the equipment (and sometimes to unsuspecting patients). The magnet vendor became frustrated with having to continually repair a coil damaged by the static shocks and demanded that the facility replace the flooring. But it turns out a quart of cleaning solution trumped the vendor’s ultimatum and avoided a $100,000 flooring replacement!
Click here to be taken to the full article.
Hitting The Ceiling
Over HIPAA-Required Walls
By Tobias Gilk
Strip me naked, tar and feather me, but please, don’t let anyone see my shoulder on your console!
This is the absurd end towards which some have carried patient privacy issues in the MRI suite. HIPAA was designed to protect our privacy, but the way some are choosing to implement it does so by putting our flesh-and-blood selves at greater risk.
From a patient privacy standpoint, the ideal MRI control room is walled-off and opaque. Better yet, we could do teleradiology one better and have real-time tele-reads, gathering technologists like air-traffic controllers in remote buildings. But to acquiesce to this HIPAA-perfect world would profoundly compromise patient care and safety.
Click here to be taken to the full article.
Burying MRI Construction Mistakes:
How What You Can't See Affects What You Can Read.
By Tobias Gilk
What’s the old joke about the similarity between doctors and general contractors? It’s that they both bury their mistakes!
When we walk into an MRI suite, the rooms don’t look all that different from other parts of the hospital or imaging suite. But the fact is that those similarities are only superficial and the parts of the MRI suite construction concealed behind the wallpaper or under the floor tiles are (or at least should be) significantly different from traditional construction. The fact that the outward appearance can be made to look so similar means that egregious construction errors that degrade image quality can remain hidden for years, if not decades.
Click here to be taken to the full article.
Articles In The Works In the upcoming months we will be sharing articles with you on a number of topics, from tools that are immediately applicable, to strategies that will help your facility on into the future. Several planned upcoming articles include:
- Hyperthermia: Another Interventional Application
- Access Control Devices: Keeping Zone III Secure
- Double Down: Raising The Stakes Of MRI Safety
We Love Hearing From You!
Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments on the articles or issues you'd like to see covered.
Junk Architects, PC
802 Broadway - 5th Floor
Kansas City, MO 54105
816-472-7722
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