This webinar will cover the CMS hospital CoPs and the Joint Commission MRI requirements. If a surveyor showed up at your door tomorrow, would you be prepared? Does your hospital have proper safety protocols in place to prevent accidents and injuries in the MRI suite? Does your hospital have an MRI safety training program? 

Changing safety recommendations and guidelines, new medical devices, and increasing field strengths have made it difficult to update training material properly. Is your staff aware of your MRI safety policy and procedure and does it reflect the current evidence-based literature? Do you have an MRI medical director whose responsibilities include ensuring that MR safe practice guidelines are established and maintained as recommended by ACR? It can also result in malpractice exposure or fine and hospitals may be visited by their accreditation organization or the Centers for Medicare and Medicare (CMS). It is a significant patient safety issue.

Did you know and follow the most current MRI guidelines by the American College of Radiology? Are you compliant with the ACR guidance document on MR Safe Practices and 2019 recommendations? The ACR updated this because of the many potential risk and reports of adverse incidents associated with MRI. An error can be costly to the hospital especially if you have to quench the magnet. 

This program will also include a discussion of the diagnostic imaging standards related to MRI standards by the Joint Commission (TJC). These standards require the hospital to orient the technologist performing the MRI, and to provide ongoing education in many areas. This includes positioning to prevent thermal injuries, reduce the risk for nephrogenic system fibrosis, ferromagnetic items, safe equipment, screening for medical implants and more and these will be discussed. TJC also has a sentinel event alert on MRI safety and even though retired it is still important.

Could any of these real cases happen at your facility? A nurse once took an oxygen tank into an MRI suite and it became a missile striking a nine-year child in the head resulting in his death. A nurse took a patient on a cart into the MRI room and the patient was pinned between the cart and the scanner breaking three bones in her leg. A nurse recently took a metal IV cart to the door which resulted in the IV cart becoming a missile and the cart was pulled into the MRI. These were costly mistakes for the hospital and significant patient safety issues. It is estimated that there are 7,000 MRI injuries per year and that 85% can be prevented.

There are potential risks in the MR environment not only for patients but for health care professional staff. There have many reports in the healthcare literature about magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) adverse events. This program will cover the Joint Commission sentinel event alert on preventing accidents and injuries in the MRI and are important even though the SEA has been retired. It will discuss the American College of Radiology guidelines and safety concerns to make your MRI environment safer. This is a must-attend program for any facility that does MRI. This program is also important in light of four recent MRI incidents in US hospitals.

 The National Quality Forum has revised the serious reportable events or never events and added MRI injury or death of a patient or a staff associated with the introduction of a metallic object into the MRI area.

Session Agenda:-

Issues that will be covered during this program include:

• Introduction and why staff need to be aware of MRI risk issues
• CMS  radiology standards on MRI
  • CMS radiology standards 
  • Definition of MRI and uses
  • Risks of MRI
  • MRI standards and ACR
  • Procedures to address risk including equipment such as oxygen tanks and fire extinguishers, hearing protection, thermal injuries, tattoos, metal implants, etc
• Training
  • Education and training of hospital staff
• ACR Guidance Document on MR Safe Practices
• The Joint Commission sentinel event alert and recommendations (retired but still important)
• TJC standard PC, EC, and HR.01.05.03 staff  orientation and education
• TJC EC standard
  • Claustrophobic patients, patients with urgent medical needs, medical implants, ferromagnetic objects, acoustic noise
  • Restrictive access, screening and training n MRI safety, supervising restricted areas, signage to entrance MRI scanner
  • Quality control and maintenance to maintain quality in MRI
  • Annual MRI performance evaluation and recommendations
  • The hospital must verify and document ongoing training on safe MRI for radiology tech such as screening, positioning, acceptable equipment and supplies, safety response procedure, emergency shutdown, hearing protection etc.
• PC standards
  • Ensuring correct patient, imaging site, and positioning,
  • Age consideration
  • Knowledge of recent imaging exams
  • Data on the incidence of ferromagnetic objects unintentionally entering the room, related injuries
• MRI screening procedure for patients
• American College of Radiology standards and documents including ACR white paper on MR safety
• Checklist of safety in the MRI suite
• Devices that trigger safety questions (pacers, pacing wires, shunts, tattoos, and permanent makeup, regular makeup, etc.)
• New pacemakers that are MR safe
• What’s new in MRI hazards (sandbags, electrode cables, tattoos, etc.)
• MR facility safety design guidelines and zones
• Contrast agent safety
• Safety instructions for patients
• Policies and procedures
• MR facility emergency preparedness guidelines
• NQF 29 serious reportable events and MRI 
• Recommendations
• Organizations and Resources; Institute for Magnetic Resonance Safety, FDA Patient Safety News, MRI.safety.com, ASTM, AJR, Pa Patient Safety Advisory,  GE Healthcare, etc.

Session Objectives:-

• Discuss that the Joint Commission has issued a sentinel event alert on preventing accidents and injuries in the MRI suit,
• Describe recommendation to improve MRI safety including having established policies and procedures for identifying implants in patients,
• Recall that the American College of Radiology has a document on safe MR practice.
• Discuss that both CMS and TJC have standards that hospitals should follow regarding MRI safety

Who Should Attend?

Radiology staff, radiologists, radiology safety officer, MRI techs, patient safety officer, risk manager, compliance officer, chief nursing officer, nurse educators, director of environmental services, Joint Commission liaison, maintenance department manager, nurse supervisors, patient safety officer, regulatory affairs officer, legal counsel, emergency department and critical care nurses, transport team manager, and anyone interested in MRI safety