This week the settlement documents were released — closing the chapter on the lawsuit that arose from the seminal event in MRI safety, the 2001 oxygen tank fatality of then-six-year-old Michael Colombini.
Posts Tagged ‘MR’
Gurney Crashes MRI, Patient Injured, Hospital Fined $50K
Sunday, January 24th, 2010It is the stuff of fabled oral-histories, often dismissed as MRI urban-legend. The patient is wheeled into the MRI room on a gurney that goes flying toward the scanner. “How on Earth could these accidents happen when we know about these risks,” the skeptics question? Almost never does more than a single fragment of information surface about these sorts of accidents and, without verification, nearly all accounts can be erroneously written-off as fiction. Or, that was until enough pieces fell into place to conclusively document a recent episode… Click Here To Read More About MRI Gurney Accidents…
2010 ‘Guidelines’ Healthcare Building Code To Have MRI Safety Requirements
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009“Tweet, tweet” is usually all I hear from little birdies… but one little bird that flew past my office recently had a surprisingly large vocabulary and told me of new requirements that will be introduced in the forthcoming 2010 update to the ‘Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities’ (commonly referred to as ‘Guidelines’).
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Guidelines, they are the design requirements that are cited by the Joint Commission and, at last count, 42 of the 50 U.S. State Departments of Health. Technically, they aren’t a building code, but the function in almost the exact same way. For the first time, the Guidelines are going to have specific MRI suite design requirements for patient safety.
2010 Guidelines
Click Here To Read About The Specific MRI Safety Design Requirements…
RT-Image’s August 3 Issue on MRI Safety
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009RT-Image brought a stack of their August 3rd issue to the AHRA and handed them out at the MRI safety presentation. Why (apart from general publicity)? Because the primary thrust of the issue was on many aspects of MRI safety. This issue has feature articles on the new MR Conditional pacemaker, infection control in the MRI suite, and even one that I wrote for them…
MRI Safety Week – Free Training Downloads
Monday, July 6th, 2009Once again, we’re approaching the anniversary date of the most infamous MRI fatality and the corresponding MRI Safety Week. This year, through the in-kind support of my employer, Mednovus, I’m able to make available a MRI safety quiz (actually, it’s two quizzes, one for radiology / MR staff and one for the MRI layperson).
FMD. Don’t We Have Screening Protocols For That?
Friday, May 22nd, 2009One 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…
JCAHO and MRI Safety… Are They Serious?
Thursday, January 1st, 2009As you may be aware, the Joint Commission has historically offered nothing in the way of MRI-specific safety standards. MRI may be the only service at an accredited provider that had not even one specific JCAHO standard for patient safety. Yes, all of the broader patient safety standards apply to MRI as they do to the rest of the provider, but with so many unique risks, wouldn’t you think that they would have at least one MRI-specific safety standard?
Click to read more about Joint Commission, MRI safety, and the Environment of Care…
‘No More’ In ’09
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008With around 8,000 – 10,000 MRI’s in the US alone, I’m not naive enough to think that we can wholly reshape behavior in all, or even a majority, of MRI providers in a single year. I do believe, however, that we can set a realistic goal to improve MRI safety.
MRI Safety Planning Season
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008Ahh the four seasons… Winter, Spring, Summer, and MRI Safety Planning.
What, you’ve only heard it referred to as ‘Autumn‘ before? Well, that’s not terribly surprising. We’re so inundated with honorary days, weeks, and even months, that the season of MRI Safety Planning fails to get its fair share of media time. But here’s why MRI Safety Planning season should be tops on your list right now.
First, while there is a growing awareness of MRI Safety Week, a single week doesn’t really afford the time needed to plan for improvements to MRI safety. Real improvements come from refinements in operations and process, coupled with effective tools and training. That sort of interdisciplinary approach often requires more than a couple days to put together.
Second, MRI Safety Week falls in the middle of summer when budget-wrangling loses the attention-span battle to thoughts of barbecues and coco-butter suntan lotion. It is precisely now, when so many organizations are hammering out their financial priorities for next year’s budget, that MRI safety planning should be in full-swing.
By combining the operations planning with the budgeting, you can reap some real multi-task benefits from these synergistic efforts, and – buoyed by the support of our whole Mednovus organization – I’m here to help you make it as productive as possible.
When making your MRI safety plans, it’s important to know what new criteria are going to be expected of your facility. Accrediting bodies are all looking at MRI safety in a new way, and this is starting with the Joint Commission’s Environment of Care requirements, effective January of 2009.
There is also the flurry of recent MRI safety Best-Practice recommendations from a number of documents, all of which should be part of the Administrator / Technologist library of reference materials. One common element to the Joint Commission’s Sentinel Event Alert #38, the ACR’s Guidance Document for Safe MR Practices, and the recent Veterans Administration MRI Design Guide, is the recommendation for the use of ferromagnetic detection (see below).
While ferromagnetic detection systems can be readily incorporated into both new and operational MRI facilities with minimal muss & fuss, even the most easily-installed and cost-effective systems typically require advanced budgetary planning.
The upshot? Please start thinking today about your planned MRI safety improvements for 2009 and budget accordingly.
Whether you’re considering the newly-released Mednovus Sentinel® GS 2.0 portals (both the 24-inch Patient Sentinel® GS 2.0 and the 48-inch Entry Sentinel® GS 2.0) or our SAFESCAN® hand-held Target Scanner™ (or the optimal combination of both), it would be a privilege to be at your service.
We at Mednovus are delighted to announce our new association with Siemens Medical Solutions, a world leader in MR imaging, and we encourage you to contact your local Siemens sales rep to get product quotes for your budgeting purposes. Alternatively, simply let us know where you are located, and we will put you in touch with the appropriate Mednovus product expert from Siemens’ national accessories division. Contact us soon so that we can arm you with the information you need to secure MRI safety improvements in next year’s budget.
Yes! Please put me in touch with the right Siemens’ accessories product expert!
By reviewing your current MRI safety protocols against published best-practices, and soon-to-be accreditation standards, you can prioritize the areas for improvement in 2009. In many cases, no-cost operational changes will help you achieve your goals, but whether it’s a new MRI-friendly infusion pump, improved signage, or the thrice-recommended ferromagnetic detector, you will probably need to have a few MRI safety line-items in next year’s budget.
Please contact us if we can be of any assistance in helping you with your observances of MRI Safety Planning season.
Tobias Gilk, President & MRI Safety Director Mednovus, Inc. Tobias.Gilk@Mednovus.com www.MEDNOVUS.comNew Joint Commission Environment of Care (EC) Requirements
Saturday, September 13th, 2008Starting in January of 2009, the drought of MRI safety regulation will begin to end.
It surprises many that the Joint Commission has no specific MRI safety accreditation standards. Surveys of accredited MRI providers have, over the past many years, focused largely on general safety standards, adapted for the MRI environment. Historically, a surveyor’s check for a non-magnetic portable fire extinguisher was the only MRI-specific safety check provided by the Joint Commission.
Despite the fact that many MRI-specific safety articles, recommendations, and, most recently, Sentinel Event #38 have been offered by the Joint Commission and its allied Joint Commission Resources educational arm, there have not previously been specific MRI safety standards for accreditation, and it is only through the new Environment of Care requirements that MRI safety will become an implicit standard for Joint Commission accredited facilities.
Starting this coming January 2009, inpatient and outpatient accredited facilities will need to abide by the new Risk Management provisions of the Joint Commission Environment of Care standard. The Standards Improvement Initiative will require facilities to prospectively define the physical hazards within the facility and develop specific responses to manage and mitigate those hazards.
The new standard specifically cites Sentinel Event Alerts as one external reference that must be considered in defining risks. For MRI, this automatically means Sentinel Event Alert #38. And since SEA #38 draws so heavily from the ACR Guidance Document for Safe MR Practices: 2007, it only follows that the ACR Guidance Document is the underlying industry standard document for defining MRI safety. Another external reference that specifically addresses MRI physical hazards which should be used as a basis for risk analysis is the VA MRI Design Guide.
What do Sentinel Event Alert #38, the ACR Guidance Document, and the VA MRI Design Guide all recommend? Well, lots of common elements, actually, but one of the key recommendations is for the use of ferromagnetic screening (click here to download a PDF document that outlines many of the recent recommendations for ferromagnetic detection).
While it is starting with the Joint Commission Environment of Care, my expectation is that MRI-specific patient safety requirements will spread to other accreditation requirements, building codes, and standards of practice. This will include not just recommendations, but requirements for the use of ferromagnetic detection for MRI pre-screening.
Over the next few months, all Joint Commission accredited MRI providers will need to review the standards of practice in the ACR Guidance Document for MR Safe Practices. Specific actions must be taken to identify, document, and respond to the unique hazards in the MR environment. One of those immediate actions should be planning for ferromagnetic detection at your MRI facility.
If you have any questions about the new MRI safety standards, the best-practice recommendations for ferromagnetic equipment siting, and incorporating these vital safety instruments in your MRI screening practices, I recommend that you heed the advice of the ACR Guidance Document, the VA MRI Design Guide, and other safety practice documents. If you still have questions about these standards, I invite you to contact me.
Tobias Gilk, President & MRI Safety Director Mednovus, Inc. Tobias.Gilk@Mednovus.com www.MEDNOVUS.com