by
Loren Bonner, DOTmed News Online Editor | September 10, 2012
From the September 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
In addition to an interest in staff safety training, the Commission has zeroed in on elements of the ACR 4-zone principal in their recent surveys.
Kopp ferromagnetic detection
on doorway
“They are asking providers to demonstrate how they handle these different safety protocols with tools, resources and documents,” says Gilk. Ferromagnetic detection systems, which have been around since 2005, are popular devices that comply with the ACR 4-zone principal. Kopp Development Inc. manufactures detection portals that not only screen individuals who enter an MRI room, but also show the location of dangerous ferromagnetic objects on the person.
“We have an extensive follow-up program with our customers every three months and I’ve heard lately that the Joint Commission is actually evaluating based on whether they [the facility] had detectors,” says Anna Srb, director of marketing and sales at Kopp. “And if they did, they got higher marks.”
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Manufacturer ETS Lindgren, has also seen increased interest in its ferromagnetic detection device.
“Ferroguard has really taken off in the past three or four years,” says Craig Berg, director of Ferroguard Technical Sales at ETS-Lindgren.
CMS keeps mum
Last October, the FDA held a public meeting on MRI safety. But before it took place, CMS and the FDA had been in talks about what quality rules should be applied across radiology. This included things specific to MRI.
“The ultimate goal was that CMS would release these interpretive guidelines by the end of the year last year,” says Gilk.
But no one has heard anything since. Gilk speculates that the timing might not be right.
“My understanding is that there are a set of interpretive guidelines for radiology patient safety that are sitting on someone’s desk at CMS that haven’t been acted upon. I think the feds see this as the wrong time to implement any new regulations or interpretive guidelines. They want things to simmer down a little with the ACA [Affordable Care Act]. So if and when they will implement these is anyone’s guess.”
What’s really cost-effective?
As much as the industry wants to move in the right direction, current economic factors will undoubtedly get in the way of securing safe MRI envir onments across the board.
