Another component to take into consideration when tracking and monitoring radiation exposure and preventing overexposure is the quality of patient care. Gone are the days of the one local hospital with only a handful of doctors. Today, patients have a wide range of options when it comes to their health care and, as mentioned previously, they are becoming more and more educated about those options. Patients are choosing the facilities offering higher standards of patient care and those providing a variety of options to help patients stay updated with decisions being made about their health.

Not only should hospitals be concerned about monitoring and tracking radiation to avoid legal liability and increase patient care, but taking a proactive approach to tracking and monitoring radiation exposure in patients will actually save facilities time and money. When patient radiation exposure is monitored and shared among facilities and departments, duplication of tests and waste costs are not incurred.


From the standpoint of a health care facility, the need for a system or systems that track and monitor exposure of radiation for patients is clear. Facilities should explore options available to increase their standards of patient care and increase market share, decrease costs and waste and limit legal liability.

Legal requirements
While current laws do not mandate that health care facilities have a system in place to monitor and track radiation dosage, California recently passed legislation that will make it necessary by next year. This is likely the first of many laws to be introduced. The wording of the law states that “radiation dosage levels from CT scans and therapeutic X-rays used to treat cancer be recorded on the scanned image and in a patient’s health records. Radiation overdoses must be reported to the patient, the treating physician and the California Department of Health.”

Additionally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began the Initiative to Reduce Unnecessary Radiation Exposure in February 2010 and many groups are working toward developing federal legislation to do the same. Having a proactive system in place to track and monitor radiation exposure can aid in this process. Compiling all of this information into a nationwide database can also allow physicians and radiologists all over the country to learn from each other, showing which amounts of exposure are necessary for certain tests and how to minimize that exposure.

More Voices