It 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…
Posts Tagged ‘risk’
Fear and Clothing In MRI-Land: An MRI Safety Tale
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Near the end of last year I posted an article from an RSNA ‘tip of the day’ regarding external fixation, halo, hardware and ferromagnetic risks. Now, in the first few weeks of 2010 we learn of new MRI safety risks from orthopedic hardware that may be more common than halo systems, scoliosis body braces.
External fixation and braces are typically very carefully screened for contraindication for MRI examination, but what may not be as frequently screened is the clothing underneath. Click Here For The Rest Of The Story…
ThermaCare HeatWrap Dangerous In MRI?
Friday, January 8th, 2010Yesterday I was provided a copy of an anonymized MRI accident / incident report which described how an MRI patient wearing a ThermaCare HeatWrap (something of a self-warming patch for muscle aches) had the wrap pulled off of them by the magnetic attraction of the MRI.
ThermaCare HeatWrap Products Contain Iron And May Be Drawn Into MRI Scanners
Click To Read More About This Incident And How To Prevent Similar Accidents From Occurring…
Can We Still Call Them ‘Never Events’ When Accidents Happen So Frequently In MRI?
Monday, December 7th, 2009This post attempts to draw-together two recent threads from here on the MRI Metal Detector blog. First, there was a long-running question about the FDA and their online-accessible database of medical device accidents which, for months, appeared to be malfunctioning, and recently was repaired. Second, there was my post in which I identified 5 MRI ‘Never Events’ which, if industry standard procedures are followed, should never occur.
ECRI Top 10 Medical Technology Hazards Includes MRI Projectiles
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009Every year the ECRI Institute publishes their Top 10 health technology hazards, identifying the 10 most serious (and unintended) risks posed by our ever-increasing use of sophisticated medical devices to diagnose and treat patients. In November, the Institute released their 2010 watch list, which dedicated a Top 10 slot, and an entire page, to ferromagnetic projectiles in MRI.
FDA’s MAUDE Database Appears To Be Restored
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009For 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…
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…
Colombini Lawsuit For Most Infamous MRI Death – Settled
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009That’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…
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…