By Sal Martino, CEO of ASRT

A proposal by the Department of Veterans Affairs intended to help our nation’s veterans receive more timely health care could instead lead to a lower standard of care and ultimately put them at risk. The proposed rule would give full practice authority to advanced practice registered nurses, which includes allowing them to perform medical imaging procedures that use ionizing radiation.

This proposal is disturbing and could lead to serious consequences for veterans. Ionizing radiation can be extremely dangerous if administered incorrectly. Registered radiologic technologists have the education, skills and expertise to perform high quality medical imaging procedures, while keeping radiation dose as low as possible. Yet, the VA’s proposal would give certified nurse practitioners, a group without necessary education in radiation protection, full practice authority to “order, perform, supervise, and interpret laboratory and imaging studies.” It is a dangerous precedent to allow personnel who have not undergone rigorous training in radiation safety, radiation physics and patient positioning to assume medical imaging responsibilities.



In another alarming move, the VA proposal would give CNPs the ability to interpret medical images. Radiologists are doctors who spend thousands of hours learning how to understand and interpret medical images in order to accurately diagnose injuries and diseases. For our veterans, and all patients, radiologists can truly be life savers. However, according the VA, interpreting medical images can now be outsourced to other, less-experienced health care personnel.

The VA states its proposed rule “would increase veterans’ access to VA health care by expanding the pool of qualified health care professionals,” but the reality is that if a veteran needs a computed tomography scan, requires radiopharmaceuticals to be administered for a nuclear medicine procedure or has to undergo a cardiovascular-interventional technique to guide a catheter or stent through the body, the procedure could actually be performed by someone with no background, education or experience in medical imaging best practices.

The bottom line is this is a patient safety issue. Only registered radiologic technologists should perform procedures that use ionizing radiation and only experienced radiologists should interpret medical images.

In bypassing the health care professionals who are experts in managing radiation dose, medical imaging physics, patient positioning techniques and equipment protocols, the proposal puts veterans at risk for poor quality images, repeat exams and possible radiation overexposure.

Like a number of other health care organizations, the American Society of Radiologic Technologists strongly opposes this proposal. While we fully support urgent measures needed to address the overwhelming challenges faced by the VA health care system, the VA should reconsider its approach and work on a plan to enhance patient care, not compromise it. We believe our nation’s heroes deserve nothing less.

We encourage radiologic technologists, veterans and anyone who cares about safe and accurate medical imaging procedures to contact the VA and express opposition to this proposed rule.

It is open for comment until July 25.

Sal Martino is the chief executive officer of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists. The Society represents more than 153,000 medical imaging and radiation therapy professionals.

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