June 6th, 2009
When I was eight, these words struck fear in my heart. It didn’t matter how small the infraction I committed was (or if there even was an infraction to begin with), I would beg the other kid to not ‘tell’ whoever it was that they were planning to tell. It may have been their kindly grandmother that they planned on telling, but in my mind it was always some 7-foot troll who would have undoubtedly come outside and chewed me to bits.
It took a while, but slowly I realized that tellin‘ and getting in trouble were two, very different things. This is a lesson that we in the MRI community would do well to learn regarding accidents.
Click Here To Learn More About Tellin’ And MRI Accidents…
Tags: accident, accreditation, authority, death, event, FDA, injury, magnetic, MAUDE, MDR, MRI, near-event, near-miss, patient, Pennsylvania, photo, picture, pre-screen, projectile, regulation, regulatory, report, resonance, safety, screening
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
May 22nd, 2009
One of the most oft-cited rationalizations for not complying with contemporary best practices that call for using ferromagnetic detection (FMD) for MRI pre-screening is that ‘FMD doesn’t catch anything that existing screening protocols aren’t meant to catch.’ What you may find surprising about this statement is that I agree with it wholeheartedly… I would just change the inflection a bit. I would say it more like…
Ferromagnetic detection doesn’t catch anything that existing screening protocols aren’t meant to catch.
That inflection makes a world of difference, as you’ll see in just a moment…
Click These Words Here To See What I Mean…
Office Chair Sucked Into MRI:
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Tags: accident, care, detection, detector, fatality, ferromagnetic, hazard, injury, magnet, magnetic resonance, metal, missile, MR, MRI, patient, photo, picture, projectile, risk, safety, screening, standard, Technologist, translational, video
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
May 22nd, 2009
In a word, ‘Yes,’ but not by the conventional ways that imaging providers are accustomed to...
Would using ferromagnetic detection (FMD), to add a new and effective layer of pre-MRI screening, be reimbursed? What I mean is, is there a CPT code to get paid back for providing this additional service?
No, but the lack of a CPT code has little to do with the fact that using FMD can contribute, directly, to an MRI provider’s bottom-line. In fact, there are two concrete ways, off of the top of my head, that I know have provided financial ‘payback’ to users of ferromagnetic detection systems.
Click Here To Learn How FMD Pays Back…
Tags: accident, cost, CPT, detection, detector, ferromagnetic, ferrous, investment, magnet, magnetic, metal, MRI, projectile, reimbursement, revenue, risk, ROI, safety, screening
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | No Comments »
May 1st, 2009
Ferromagnetic detection for pre-MRI screening is disruptive. Not that it slows down your patient throughput (it doesn’t), or that it makes imaging problematic (it doesn’t do that, either), but it does provide an entirely new type of feedback that MR staff and Technologists have never had before. It tells us whether subjects are actually listening to the self-screening instructions we’ve been giving for years. These instruments, more precisely the feedback that they provide, does take a little getting used to. The introduction of ferromagnetic detection is often met with 5 steps towards acceptance…
Click Here To Learn The 5 Phases. C’mon. I Know You Want To…
Tags: accept, accident, detection, detector, ferromagnetic, imaging, magnet, magnetic, metal, MRI, radiology, risk, SAFESCAN, safety, screening, Technologist
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | No Comments »
April 25th, 2009
A few weeks ago I posted my layperson’s summary of why there’s even an issue with metal and MRI (click here to read that post on MRI and Metal). In this posting, I hope to explain why it’s so critical to find metals, particularly ferromagnetic metals, being carried by people or inside objects.
Click To Read More About Different Metals and MRI…
Tags: artifact, damage, death, detect, ferromagnetic, hazard, injury, interference, magnet, magnetic resonance, metal, missile, MRI, non-ionizing, projectile, protocol, RF, risk, rotation, torque, translational
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | No Comments »
April 18th, 2009
Nearly all MRI accidents that wind up the subject of civil lawsuits conclude the same way… in confidential settlement protected by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This makes it extremely difficult to get to the facts associated with any particular accident. Currently the highest profile MRI accident (the death of a young boy from a flying oxygen cylinder) is in pre-trial litigation and is our best window into the legal responsibility of Technologists and providers. Today, however, I learned of another suit in which a Tech is suing her former employer for willfully putting off needed system repairs that compromised image quality and diagnostic value.
Click to Read More About This MRI Safety Lawsuit…
Tags: coil, colombini, daignostic, death, diagnosis, fatality, FL, Florida, Horizon, image quality, injury, lawsuit, magnetic, maintenance, MRI, news, practice, protocol, resonance, safety, standard of care, suit, Technologist, television, TV, Westchester
Posted in Other MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
April 13th, 2009
As I struggle through the last bit of my annual tax returns, I’m struck by the euphemistic reference to inevitability, “only two things are certain, death and taxes.” At this very moment, I’m not sure that the two are that different (that is, if death is to be long and arduous). But I think we often make the assumption that everything we wish to avoid is somehow inevitable. Mom made us eat our spinach. Uncle Sam requires us to decipher byzantine rules. But we don’t have to accept MRI accidents as requisite and inevitable parts of providing MRI services.
Click to Read More About How We Perceive MR Accidents…
Tags: accident, death, inevitable, magnetic, MRI, probable, resonance, safety, taxes
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
April 3rd, 2009
A very common question asked about ferromagnetic detection systems is, “will it find __________ [insert the object of your choice: pacemaker, cell phone, pocket knife, intra-orbital fragments...]?” Funny, but in the hundreds, if not thousands, of times that question has been posed to me, never once has it been, “will it find a nail I stuck in my nose 30 years ago?”
Click To Read How This Isn’t A Joke Question…
Tags: detect, ferromagnetic, foreign body, magnet, metal, MRI, nail, news, nose, story, television
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
March 22nd, 2009
Many people just learning about MRI safety and hazards ask very similar questions. One of most frequent is, “why do I have to remove all metal before an MRI,” or it’s corollary, “can I get an MRI with some metal on (or in) me?” To answer these questions, let’s start at the very beginning…
What A Very Good Place To Start… (Click Here)
Tags: ACR, aluminum, cobalt, danger, detect, detector, ferromagnetic, ferrous, hazard, iron, JCAHO, Joint Commission, magnetic, metal, MRI, nickel, pacemaker, pre-screen, projectile, risk, safe, screening, stainless, steel, VA, Veterans Affairs
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 2 Comments »
March 18th, 2009
Def. Hyperbolic: Mathematical curve functions which have relations to the hyperbola.
Def. Hyperbolic: Rhetorical exaggeration or diminishing beyond the fact; exceeding the truth; as, an hyperbolical expression.
I have this sense that some feel that virtually all talk of MRI accidents is hyperbolic, or exaggeration. To those who believe this, I say there is a truth buried in this thought, but it’s not what they may think…
Click To Learn The Truth Within The Hyperbole…
Tags: accident, burn, data, FDA, frequency, hyperbola, hyperbole, injury, magnetic, management, MAUDE, missile, MRI, projectile, radiology, rate, risk
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »