by
Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | September 20, 2021
From the September 2021 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
As a physicist, West Physics’ Thornhill goes to imaging facilities with barriers such as locked doors and keypad punches, and she has concerns about those methods. She believes that while they can be very effective for preventing unauthorized individuals from entering into Zone IV without being properly screened, they can be a challenge as well.
“The more barriers you have, the more difficult in the case of an emergency to get people there,” she said. For instance, if the MR technologist is working alone in Zone IV and an emergency occurs, they would have to activate the fire alarm for the locked doors to open.
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According to Thornhill, the most important aspect of MR safety is proper training.
“You could have layers of doors locked and security keypads, but if nobody knows what their role is in the event of an emergency, the outcome could potentially result in harm to patients and personnel,” she said.
She added that it’s important for imaging facilities to run through scheduled mock drills and to “practice, practice, practice.”
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