The Joint Commission has announced changes to its diagnostic imaging standards to address quality and safety issues as they pertain to the changing manner of healthcare delivery practices.
The updates are an attempt to increase patient safety and quality control by ensuring organizations have the proper infrastructure and safety culture to minimize radiation exposure to patients.
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Some of the new standards include annual performance evaluations of imaging devices, documenting computed tomography radiation doses in the patient’s clinical record, managing safety risks in a magnetic resonance imaging environment and collecting data on radiation over-exposure events.
The revisions will be implemented in two parts. The first set of changes, focused on CT, nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography and MRI, will be effective July 1, 2014. The second set of changes, focused on fluoroscopy, minimum qualifications for clinicians performing imaging exams and cone beam CT use, will be phased in by 2015.
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