Either for possible dose reduction or changes in clinical practice, evaluation of CT protocols is an important part of imaging management. Many institutions have undertaken dose reduction programs [1-9] which are now mandated by the latest Joint Commission [10], American College of Radiology [11, 12], Image Wisely [13], Image Gently [14], and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine guidelines [15, 16]. These programs evaluate whether the written protocols reflect the latest in our scientific understanding of what scanner parameters produce the lowest possible dose while still providing diagnostic images. These studies focus on the protocol design. The actual implementation of the protocols, however, has an important impact on whether …show more content…
This concept takes advantage of the inherent similiarity among CT protocols covering similar indications and body regions and imparts a high level lof uniformity to our protocol parameter settings [22, 23]. Where appropriate, we designed our protocols with size-specific variations so that the acquisition parameters are appropriate across the spectrum of body habitus. At our institution, technologists are expected to choose the appropriate protocol based on patient size and implement it without modification. We have roughly 300 protocols in use covering all body size and indication specific protocol modifications to mitigate the need for scan time protocol adjustments. In this paper we analyze the instances in which protocols were modified at scan time to understand technologist compliance with our …show more content…
This multiplicity of scans will occur not only at sites using relatively small numbers of protocols such at the Cleveland Clinic, who report to employ 30 protocols across their fleet of ~70 CT scanners [5] but also at sites like ours which employs ~300 protocols over ~15 scanners. Sites using a small number of protocols will scan using the same protocols for multiple indications and sites like ours using a master protocol concept will end up scanning multiple indications using similar acquisition parameters. We hypothesize that an analysis of all the scan time acquisition parameters used at our institution would reveal repeated use of common protocols. These would represent frequent exams such as routine heads, routine chests, and routine abdomen exams. In this work, we analyze sets of scan parameters that were only used once over the course of about a year for a single scanner in our fleet. The hypothesis motivating the present work is that “one-offs” contain the majority of un-desired scan time changes. Root cause analysis of these events, in theory would improve our clinical practice of
The duration for each appointment should include actual time needed to conduct the scan as well as set-up and transition time. The technologist should not retrieve or escort the patient from and to the front desk. I would recommend having a transport person that conducts dual task. The task should include, transporting patient to and from the technologist, assisting walk-in patients. In order to decrease the lead time from scan to reading of MRI, I recommend installing an electronic medical record system. This will allow the radiologist to read the scan in real time. Outsourcing the transcription of reports should be eliminated. The electronic medical system will allow the radiologist to document and sign reports. It also prevent records from being transported to the scheduling center; reducing the number of times the patient information is touch as well as improving communication. By conducting the task in-house allows Quinte to save money. Quinte MRI facility is a 24 hour facility. I would recommend closing the facility on Saturday and Sunday due the lack of scans
The first opportunity for Texas Health Care Imaging is the business slant with the development towards coordinating computerized imaging and electronic restorative records. The move in the medical services industry is consistently acknowledged to advance toward an electronic restorative record and part of that includes a total digital solution of imaging examinations. U.S. Federal government regulations are forcing the industry towards direct digital imaging solutions by 2017 to maintain current Medicare reimbursement rates. The “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (American, 2016) will reduce Medicare reimbursement rates by 30% for any non-direct digital radiology imaging. Texas Health Care Imaging arrangements are for the most part
There has been an increased demand from the regulatory agencies that some standard of quality should be maintained on x-ray units and other equipment which can potentially harm the patients if the units are not performing as they are supposed to. Frequent requirement from these agencies is that institutions that use CT scanner should verify the performance of the scanner periodically (e.g. daily, monthly and annually) and if the performance standards are not met, they should often prescribe alternative measures. A QC program must be operational in order to meet these regulatory requirements. However in NM department, if CT fails its QC, it gets reported to the department’s physicist(s) who will either advice to
One of the important components in obtaining optimal image for radiographers is selecting correct technical factors. The standard technique chart is available in the radiology department. Every patient is different and therefore it is necessary to use correct technical factors for each patient. Exposure technique must be adjusted according to the patient's history and condition. There are certain disease causes body tissue thickness to increase or decrease that can alter the tissue composition. For this reason, it is required for the higher or lower technique to achieve proper image receptor exposure. Pathological conditions can affect the overall thickness and composition of the patient's tissues. Thus, selecting correct technical factors
Qu XM, Li G, Sanderink GC, Zhang ZY, Ma XC (2012). Dose reduction of cone beam CT
In summary, acquiring a new CT scanner will not only benefit the department but the organization and patients as a whole. When compared to other hospitals with similar ED and CT volumes, those facilities had a total of 4 or more CT scanners in comparison to our two scanners. Therefore, with the increased volumes of our ED, the CT department is running very lean and there is no other way to relieve the workload capacity. Acquiring this third scanner will streamline all ED patients; while increasing all opportunities for growth as an organization and in the clinical
Clinical data captured at the point of care can be efficiently and effectively used for administrative purposes such as vital and health statistics trending, health policy decision-making, and compensation The use of a map from SNOMED-CT to ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS will allow clinical information captured at a very granular level to be aggregated
The writers draw out that CT scans can be useful and harmful to us.CT scans can be used to detect the diseases in your body but at the same time,it can also harm our body due to the expose to radiation which can possibly cause cancer.CT scans is good at identifying diseases fast for the patient to get treatment immediately but it is actually giving out lots of radiation which may cause cancer.CT scans is indifferent depending on the situation.
CT may be applied to interdisciplinary healthcare at any stage, demonstrating transferability (Kolcaba, 2003). While there are few variables in the theory, not all the variables have to be utilized. Kolcaba permits researchers to develop the TS to fit their own comfort interventions, instruments, or settings.
In order for CT scan to compute relevant images, ionizing ration must be used. People who are exposed to radiation are at a higher risk of developing cancer. Consequently, physicians must work diligently to minimize the amount of radiation that patients are exposed to. In order to so, there are several steps that clinicians can take. The steps are as indicated: the referring physician should be asked to justify the need for the radiation exposure; when an alternative to non-ionizing tool can be used, it should be used instead of CT; previously done images should never be repeated, but instead the results should be obtained to prevent unnecessary radiation exposure; education of referring clinicians, radiologist and the performing technicians regarding radiation doses; ensure scanner settings and parameters set to ensure lowest dose to achieve diagnostic images in all age ranges ( Stoodley and Phillip p.135). If these steps are followed, radiation exposure can be reduced while providing modernize care to patients.
Having such advancements and increasing stream of innovation, imaging technologies today provides greater speed and superior image quality. At the same time, the benefit to the organization and especially the patients, may not be fully realized when the workflow is obstructed by inefficiencies. Although many organizations have the latest equipment installed, they still face delays in report-turnaround time and a backlog of patients waiting for appointments. This diminished capacity and productivity can lead to variety of problems for the facilities, they can be-
TEE arrangements particularly portray an inclination for noninvasive options, restricting its utilization to situations where there is reported requirement for the data it gives. The strategies obviously expect to restrict use to fitting clinical circumstances. Bearers report narratively that the diminishment being used happens because the CPT codes and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes are adequately particular that an electronic alter can recognize appropriate and dishonorable cases. In any case, different cases in our set, for example, the HBT, likewise seem to have correspondingly particular codes without comparable impact.
The role of computed tomography (CT) in imaging has risen substantially in the previous decade (Hess et al. 2014). With its increasing demand, one of the most predominant concerns for radiation workers is the dose administered to the patient (Hess et al. 2014). Therefore, the calculation of dose is a parameter that must be monitored closely.
Strong harmful doses of radiation are used when performing medical treatments or procedures such as CT scans or X-rays. CT scans play a major role
The good, the bad and the inexplicable explores the possible causes of variation, shows the different ways in which variations can be measured, and analyses variations by PCT in rates of elective hospital admissions for selected procedures.