Posts Tagged ‘missile’
Friday, September 18th, 2009
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…
Click To Read The 5 MRI Never Events…
Tags: access control, accident, burn, contraindicated, deposition, device, Gadolinium, GFR, implant, injury, kidney, magnetic, medical, missile, MRI, near-miss, never event, NSF, payer, projectile, renal, resonance, RF, SAR, screening, translational, zones
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
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…
Click Here For The Jolting Description…
Tags: accident, database, death, FDA, imaging, injury, magnetic, MAUDE, Medwatch, missile, MRI, online, projectile, radiology, report, resonance, safety, scissors, Technologist
Posted in Other MRI Safety | 18 Comments »
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
Last month, the judge in the Michael Colombini lawsuit (the case resulting from the infamous death by oxygen tank / cylinder brought into the MRI room while the boy was in the scanner) decided on three of the last outstanding pre-trial motions. The Judge’s decisions appear to have excused one defendant, entirely, and tempered the degree of potential liability for others.
Click Here To Learn Who’s In, And Who’s Out…
Tags: colombini, court, death, fatality, ferromagnetic, injury, lawsuit, legal, liability, magnet, magnetic resonance, metal, missile, MRI, New York, patient, projectile, radiologist, radiology, risk, safety, suit, Technologist, trial, Westchester
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 10 Comments »
Friday, 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…
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 | 4 Comments »
Saturday, 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 | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, 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 »
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
No, this isn’t about federal banking bail-outs or corporate welfare. This is the cost, in real-world dollars, of an average single MRI projectile accident in the VA Healthcare system.
Click to read more about the costs of MRI missile accidents…
Tags: accident, cost, detector, expense, fatality, ferromagnetic, force, injury, magnetic, Mednovus, metal, missile, MRI, projectile, resonance, risk, ROI, safety, translational
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety | No Comments »
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
The ECRI Institute has again published their annual Top-10 Health Technology Hazards document for 2008, which is available as a free download from their website. Number 9 on the ECRI list is one of the well known MRI hazards. But before I tell you which MRI hazard made their list, let me give you a little background on what the ECRI Institute is and what they do…
Click here to learn more about ECRI and their Top 10 MRI hazard…
Tags: accident, burn, ECRI, ferromagnetic, hazard, health, injury, institute, Kanal, magnetic resonance, missile, MRI, projectile, safety, technology, threat, top-10
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Indeed. Nearly 8 years later, the civil lawsuit trial surrounding the infamous death of a 6-year old boy is scheduled to begin in March of 2009.
The multi-million dollar lawsuit has been grinding through the legal system as a myriad of claims and counter-claims have been ricocheting around among the parties. Those who’ve been watching the pre-trial activities may attest to it sometimes resembling a soap-opera with shifting alliances, but it appears that the parties’ day in court will come in less than 100 days.
Click to read more about the fast-approaching MRI death civil trial…
Tags: accident, civil, colombini, death, fatal, fatality, injury, law, missile, MRI, projectile, suit, trial
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
Friday, December 12th, 2008
I have a serial weakness for medical dramas. I get sucked-in and watch for a couple of seasons before the absurdity catches up with me. With respect to MRI, it seems that 99% of the time the shows are so wildly off-base that it seems that each must outdo its own crazy scenarios (and those of the other medical dramas) to come up with a new MRI-related plot gimmick.
But then, typically after I’ve lost all hope of seeing anything that approaches reality, something plausible and even downright real is shown on one of these programs…
Click to read more and see the real MRI accident photo…
Tags: accident, anecdote, bed, death, doctor, drama, ER, House, image, injury, magnetic resonance, medical, missile, MRI, patient, projectile, safety, Technologist, television, translational, urban legend, video
Posted in Ferromagnetic Detection for MRI Safety, Other MRI Safety | No Comments »
