Spring, and this young man’s thoughts turn to deferred lawn work. Time to get out the crabgrass treatment and pre-emergent herbicide, re-seed the bare patches, check the spark plug on the mower and see if I can finally line up the 16-year-old from down the block to mow my lawn on something more frequent than once every third-odd-dated Saturday. Whatever your spring-cleaning rituals are, this year is the optimal time to extend them to your MRIs, too. In the last year or so we’ve seen new guidance from the ACR and, just last month, the Joint Commission.
And much more significant than my dread of dandelions and crabgrass, the next few months will see the beginning of the civil trial resulting from the 2001 MRI death of a young boy in New York state. That trial will likely assign direct individual liability to radiologists and technologists who are responsible for patient safety. The fear of a multi-million dollar judgment puts my lawn care angst to shame.
So, to combat the physical risks to patients and millions of dollars of MRI equipment, as well as to mitigate the liability faced by technologists, radiologists and the companies they work for, now is the perfect time to go through you policies & procedures, review your physical facilities and contact your MRI vendor for their most up-to-date safety information.
Review MRI safety training, both for your MRI staff as well as incidental staff at your facility and first-responders (police and fire) that might be called in an emergency. Run through your code drills. Review quench authority. In essence, get your house in order.
Don’t let a lack of available time sidetrack you. If the resources aren’t available in-house to do your ‘spring cleaning’, bring someone else in to help you get it done! Have you had someone review your facility against the ACR 4-zone access and safety protocols? What about the 10 overt (and 3 implied) criteria of the new Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert?
And speaking of the new Sentinel Event Alert, don’t miss our lead feature this month which goes point-by-point through the Joint Commission’s 10 MRI safety recommendations, identifying specific issues that every MRI provider should be aware of.
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
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Look For Our 2008 Presentation Dates...
We're inching closer to the start of 2008 and we're already actively working on setting up our presentation calendar for next year. In the next weeks and months, we'll be posting information on our presentations right here! Check each month to see if we're speaking at a conference you want to attend, and come join us.
Are you interested in having us present at an event you're organizing? We'd love to hear from you and see how we can help your next professional or corporate event. Please contact us to inquire about the presentations we can provide.
MRI Newsletter - Article Archive Is Available 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 access issues.
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Special Public Access Article
Joint Commission MRI Alert:
Ten Near-Misses
By Robert Junk, AIA, AHRA and Tobias Gilk
The Joint Commission’s Sentinel Event Alert #38 represents the organization’s first foray into the realm of MRI safety. While they’re to be commended for their action, there are a number of points where their specific recommendations miss the mark.
Within the body of their alert and immediately prior to introducing the Joint Commission’s 10 recommendations, they identify three recommendations from Dr. Emanuel Kanal, FACR and principal author of the ACR’s Guidance Document for Safe MR Practices: 2007. Dr. Kanal’s recommendations, supported by the ECRI Institute, include the appointment of a MRI safety officer, establishment of MRI-specific policies and procedures to enhance safety, and adherence to the ASTM / FDA testing and labeling conventions for devices and equipment in the MRI suite.
Despite identifying Dr. Kanal’s recommendation, the Alert fails to communicate that these are specific recommendations of the ACR’s Guidance Document and conspicuously fails to either endorse Dr. Kanal’s recommendations or the Guidance Document.
The 10 recommendations of the Sentinel Event Alert are all superb in spirit, but many leave us wanting for specificity or direction as we have outlined below:
Click here to be taken to the full article.
Special Public Access Article
Throughput: The Post-DRA Watchword
By Tobias Gilk
DRA is the biggest MRI drum at the moment, and we’re going to beat it one more time. Many MRI providers believed that as long as they could ride out the immediate storm of reimbursement cuts, they’d emerge “revenue victorious” after the weaker providers dropped out of the competitive landscape. This rose-colored forecast, however, fails to recognize two key products of DRA.
DRA has re-written the revenue rules, forever.
DRA is the beginning, not the end, of reimbursement cuts.
Let’s take these in reverse order…
Click here to be taken to the full article.
Special Public Access Article
MRI Room Sizes
By Tobias Gilk
Capital improvement projects often suffer from the same symptom… the construction estimates outstrip the planned budget. In order to accommodate the fiscal belt-tightening, designs for new or renovated spaces are often stripped of everything deemed non-essential. When these downgrades fail to make up the shortfall, the designers are often challenged to squeeze every square foot out of a potential design in an attempt to reduce the associated construction costs. While across-the-board space cutting is rarely the most intelligent way to reduce costs, it’s particularly harmful to MRI suites that may have started out too small to begin with!
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:
- VA MRI Design Guide
- Lighting In The MRI Suite
- ACR MRI Accreditation Changes?
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.
MRI-Planning
802 Broadway - 5th Floor
Kansas City, MO 54105
816-472-7722
MRI_Expert@MRI-Planning.com
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