Dear Imaging Center Insider,
OK, so you're closely watching radiation dose delivered by your CT scanners, you've put in place MRI magnet safety precautions, and you're only using contrast when necessary. But do your risk management precautions include protecting patients from falls?
You might want to add that to the list. According to the Joint Commission, patient falls in 2008 were number five on a list of the top 10 types of "sentinel events," or unexpected occurrences that involve death or serious physical or psychological injury.
Although there are often protocols in place for preventing patient falls in the hospital, tracking this problem in radiology outpatient settings is less common. Click here to read what researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found about outpatient falls and how to prevent them. As an Insider subscriber, you have access to the article days before the rest of our members.
When you've finished, check out the rest of the articles in our Imaging Center Digital Community:
- Read why the American College of Radiology believes the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) 2010 Physician Fee Schedule is badly flawed.
- Get the scoop on the House of Representatives' quick fix for the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.
- Also read what CMS has to say about whether health spending will increase with reform.
- Find out why some researchers say radiology benefits management firms are effective in managing healthcare costs.
- Get the scoop on how the mammography screening debate is splitting Congress along party lines.
Happy holidays and best wishes for 2010! And as always, if you have a comment or report to share about any aspect of diagnostic imaging practice, management, administration, regulation, or financing, please contact me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.
