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New solutions, better training and regulation for reducing MR adverse events

by Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | September 12, 2022
MRI
From the September 2022 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


ACR has accreditation requirements but almost none speak to how people get injured in MR suites and what steps can be taken to prevent it.

“If you have a state license or an accreditation, whether it's Joint Commission or ACR or anybody else, don't assume that guarantees you're practicing safely,” warned Gilk. “Almost no specific preventions live in those accreditation requirements in any concrete of measurable way.”

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Since ACR is both an accrediting organization and a professional society for radiology, they’re in a strange position. Maximizing safety may come at operational or financial cost to the owner of an imaging center, and if they are an ACR member that could spell trouble.

“They are beholden to their accreditation structure, but at the same time, they can't go too far as to alienate their professional membership,” said Gilk. “I think they've tried to thread that needle by publishing best practice guidance but have failed to directly incorporate that in their accreditation requirements.”

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has the power to enforce a model set of standards, but may be unlikely to do so given the financial pressure that healthcare systems find themselves in. The culmination of hospital closures and effects of COVID forced radiology to take a back seat, but that may be starting to change.

“As we are emerging, at least, from the most acute problems with COVID, hopefully there will be a little more time, energy and resources devoted to radiology in general and MR in specific,” said Gilk. “We're going to have to see how that shakes out.”

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