Every healthcare accreditation organization promises some variation of the same two things, assurance of quality & assurance of safety. When it comes to either hospital / enterprise accreditation organizations (such as The Joint Commission [TJC] or DNV), or outpatient / MRI modality accreditation organizations (such as the American College of Radiology [ACR] or Intersocietal Accreditation […]
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How To QC MRI Safety Standards
Accreditation is required to assure safety In the United States, either enterprise or modality accreditation is required for eligibility for reimbursement for services provided to Medicare, Medicaid, or Tricare federal beneficiaries. As a result, it is estimated that over 90% of all MRI providing hospitals and imaging centers in the US hold accreditations that cover […]
Continue reading2021: The Year of MRI Safety
While the idea of MRI safety should be a priority every year, 2021 provides us with a special opportunity to reflect. As mentioned in a previous post, 2021 is the twentieth anniversary of the most infamous MRI accident in the United States: the death of young Michael Colombini. On this twentieth anniversary it’s appropriate to […]
Continue readingMRI Root-Cause Analysis (Twentieth Anniversary of Colombini Accident)
In order to recognize MRI safety weaknesses at any given site, you have to study how MRI accidents and injuries occur. Anybody with a printout of accreditation standards can be a mock-surveyor and run through a checklist, but does that person know if the checklist really represents MRI safety risks, or just check-boxes? This year, […]
Continue readingThe MRI Accident Chart (2000 – 2020)
This is the chart that we think depicts the recent state of MRI safety by looking at MRI accident rates. The data -or, more specifically, the direct deduction that it supports- makes some people downright hostile because it directly refutes the pervasive MRI public relations campaign… “MRI is the safe modality.” To be clear, MRI […]
Continue readingMRI Expert Witness / Consulting
If there’s a concern about the interpretation of an MRI study, of course you’d call on an expert witness in radiologic interpretation… a radiologist. But what if there’s a question about how MRI safety processes worked (or didn’t work) in terms of preventing an injury (like a flying object zipping at the MRI scanner, and […]
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