 We here at the MRI Newsletter are ringing in 2006 with the excitement of a new year that will be filled with information which will improve the design, operation, safety and profitability of your MRI suites! In fact, we're kicking-off 2006 with Part II of our article on maximizing your value within MRI Purchase contracts.
This headline feature provides pointers on how facilities can maximize the value in their purchase decisions and optimize the balance of schedule, costs and vendor responsibility.
Our second feature provides an analysis of the recent report from ECRI, entitled "What's New in MR Safety." You may have seen a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association which followed an MRI safety teleconference put on by ECRI which featured Frank Shellock, Terry Woods of the FDA, and Dr. Emanuel Kanal, among others.
The third feature addresses patient throughput and how facility design and process modifications can improve patient care and the competitive position of individual imaging providers.
The new year promises many exceptional highlights, including a number of invited presentations (see the News Bite below), the publication of our forthcoming "Handbook on MRI Suite Design" which should be available this summer, and hopefully some much needed legal clarification on vendor and hospital liabilities related to patient injuries.
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
Mark Your Calendars Three Times! So far we've been invited to present to the annual meetings of three groups in 2006, the Society for Magnetic Resonance Technologists, the American Society of Radiologic Technolgists at the 14th World Congress, and two presentations for the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators. Mark your calendars to join us in Seattle in May, then again in Denver in June and again in Las Vegas in August!
Click below to be taken to
www.ismrm.org/smrt (annual meeting page)
www.asrt.org (World Congress page)
www.ahraonline.org (conferences page)
Watch For 'The Handbook'. Coming out later this year will be the "Handbook on MRI Suite Design" which will consolidate much of the wisdom from the MRI Newsletter and infuse it with many of the latest thoughts on designing for the newest MRI technology, and put it all into a format to help guide any facility through equipment planning, purchase, design, installation or renovation. This will be the 'must have' book for anyone looking at new MRI equipment or expanded radiology facilities.Click here if you would like to be notified when the Handbook is available.
MRI Accident Death Litigation Rolls Forward.
The ongoing litigation for the Michael Colombini death is slowly advancing. A recent decision clarifying a number of legal points has enabled the case to go forward. A summary of the recent legal decision is available here in an article from the Westchester Journal News. The proceedings are scheduled to resume in two weeks.
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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MRI Purchase Contracts, Part II:
Structuring Purchase, Design & Construction Agreements.
By Robert Junk, AIA, AHRA and Tobias Gilk
Last month, in part I of this article, we introduced you to the variety of contracting options available to those installing new MRI systems. Ranging from a la carte collages of design and construction services, assembled by the facility’s staff, to all-inclusive turn-key packages coordinated by the equipment vendor. Somewhere in the middle are specific arrangements which can accelerate project delivery, reduce project costs, and consolidate responsibility for factors that directly impact image quality. But just as there are options that work to an owner’s benefit, there are also options providing minor conveniences at significant cost. So how do you know how to assemble the package of products and services that best fits your goals? Read on my friend…
Click here to be taken to the full article.
ECRI's Report On MRI Safety.
By Tobias Gilk
As MRI technology, utilization and clinical practice change, so to do the factors for safe and efficient MRI suites. The original ACR White Paper on MR Safety, released in 2002, was updated in 2004, and is purported to be scheduled for another update again later in 2006. In October of 2005 ECRI, an independent nonprofit health services research agency in Plymouth Meeting, PA, released an update to their own December 2001 Guidance Article on MRI safety. ECRI’s document, “What’s New in MR Safety” addresses a number of patient safety issues that have grown out of technology and operational changes that occurred in 2005.
Click here to be taken to the full article.
When Throughput Means More Than Revenue.
By Tobias Gilk
Canada’s universal health care program has a problem that imaging centers in the United States would love to have… too many patients for the available MRI’s and qualified technologists. Creaking and groaning under the weight of months of backlogged patients, an audible ‘crack’ could almost be heard in December as the state medicare system saw the first – and arguably illegal – private MRI opened in Winnipeg to self-pay patients.
While regions within the United States are overpopulated with diagnostic imaging centers, the entire nation of Canada has backlogs for CT and MRI patients that extend for months. What could these two wildly different supply and demand situations have in common? A need for improved patient throughput.
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:
- MRI Accident Data: What Every Facility Should Know
- Access Control Devices: Keeping Zone III Secure
- Quench Pipe Safety: How To Spot Trouble
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
MRI_Expert@MRI-Planning.com
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