The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may modify its maintenance directive for medical imaging and radiation therapy equipment in hospitals.
Last week, 30 stakeholder associations submitted a letter to CMS urging the agency to require that medical imaging and radiation therapy equipment is maintained according to the manufacturers' recommended maintenance standards to promote patient and user safety and support medical professionals in providing quality patient care.
Stakeholders -- including the American College of Radiology, the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, the American Society of Radiologic Technologists, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance, and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging -- said deviation from the manufacturers' recommended maintenance standards could pose unnecessary risk to patient and operator safety, while also compromising equipment performance and image quality.
The stakeholders wrote that the interpretive guidance CMS published on December 2, 2011, appropriately handles the maintenance of equipment used for radiation therapy or medical imaging by categorizing this equipment as “critical to patient health and safety” and requiring the equipment to be maintained according to the manufacturers' methods and frequency. But they noted that CMS is not enforcing this interpretive guidance and is redrafting it. They ask that the updated interpretive guidance similarly require maintenance according to the manufacturers' recommended standard for medical imaging and radiation therapy equipment.
