I’m not prepared to break out into song with ‘Hakuna Matata’ (at least, not yet), but the circular nature of things in life is unmistakable: ironically, the path that my commitment to MRI safety has taken has also produced the unintended consequence of getting me ‘uninvited’ from the ACR’s MR Safety committee.
Let’s look at the circular path it took to arrive here… Click Here For The Rest Of The Story…
(This is a continuation of my recommended MRI safety vendor itinerary, starting at the North Hall, which you can read about here, Lakeside Center, which you can read about here, and the first half of the South Hall, which you can read about here.)
Our company, Mednovus, is making the annual pilgrimage to Chicago after Thanksgiving for the biggest of all radiology trade shows, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting. In my original post I indicated why I thought MRI safety would be a ‘hot topic’ at this year’s RSNA, and gave an itinerary for the North Hall (the Philips Hall) for stops at relevant vendors, including our company, Mednovus (booth #7801). Then I followed up with an itinerary for the Lakeside Center, and just a couple days ago, I provided half of the South Hall.
Continuing on that theme, and to facilitate your review of MRI safety products and vendors, I’d like to suggest an itinerary for visiting the remaining select group of exhibitors from Exhibit Hall A, the South Hall, where the GE mega-booth is located…
Click To Read The Final Installment Of My MRI Safety Vendor Itinerary…
For a couple of months, at least, the FDA’s MAUDE database wasn’t displaying all of the accident narratives online… This appears to have been fixed!
A number of the MRI accident reports, when the narratives weren’t appearing, were little more than the name and mailing address of the MRI manufacturer. Today, if you want to read about the MR Technologist who had a pair of scissors magnetically-impelled into his forehead, you can do so. So Click Here If You’re Curious…
That’s right. Yesterday, October 26th, the Colombini family formally accepted a settlement offer for the MRI vs. oxygen tank accident which killed their 6-year-old son in 2001. The settlement puts to rest 8 years of litigation resulting from the single largest MRI safety incident in the industry’s consciousness. And though precedent-setting verdicts won’t result, the dollar-value of the settlement will likely cause many MRI providers to sit up and take notice.
Just how much is the settlement? Click Here To Learn More About The Settlement…
(This is a continuation of my recommended MRI safety vendor itinerary, starting at the North Hall, which you can read about here.)
Our company, Mednovus, is making the annual pilgrimage to Chicago after Thanksgiving for the biggest of all radiology trade shows, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting. In my prior post I indicated why I thought MRI safety would be a ‘hot topic’ at this year’s RSNA, and gave an itinerary for the North Hall (the Philips Hall) for stops at relevant vendors.
Continuing on that original theme, and to facilitate your review of MRI safety products and vendors, I’d like to suggest an itinerary for visiting a select group of exhibitors, this time in Lakeside Center (Exhibit Hall D)…
Click Here To View The MR Safety Itinerary For Lakeside Center…
“Hello Orlando!”
“Hello Orlando!”
No, there’s not an echo in this posting. I’m simply rehearsing for two nearly-back-to-back presentations on MRI safety issues to different groups, both in Orlando, Florida, in the weeks ahead.
Yes, that’s right, a recent news story from the NBC television affiliate station in Jacksonville, Florida, provides an account of how an off-duty police officer’s pistol wound up stuck to their MRI scanner, and cost the provider something in the neighborhood of $150,000 to remove!
For those unfamiliar with the term, a ‘never event’ is a label used to describe an adverse event that is wholly avoidable by simply following established best practices. For example, if you have an accurate count of the surgical instruments before and after surgery, there should never be an event where the patient leaves the OR with a sponge or clamp sewn up inside of them. A retained surgical instrument, or wrong-site surgery, or bed-sores, or patient mis-identification, or medication errors are all examples of ‘never events’.
Some insurance payers are beginning to refuse reimbursement for care that is necessitated by certain ‘never events’, and that list is likely to grow. And while they may not always result in patient injury, I’d like to propose my own list of 5 MRI ‘never events’ which should at least trigger an investigation…
I like to keep my finger on the pulse of MRI accidents and safety issues. One consequence of this is that I frequent the FDA’s MAUDE database (MAUDE is a tortured acronym for medical device user-reported mishaps). I have long criticized the FDA for their half-hearted efforts at collecting MRI accident data (which, in fairness, appears to be as much a product of congressional limitations on the FDA’s power as anything else), but MAUDE has been the only national database for these accidents that is publicly accessible.
Every so often there is an MRI accident description that is so stunning that it sends a jolt through me, reminding me why I do what I do. This is the entry that I came across just two weeks ago…