The Joint Commission (TJC) issued a Sentinel Event Alert titled “Radiation Risks of Diagnostic Imaging.” Such alerts are issued periodically by TJC to describe underlying causes of these sentinel events and to suggest steps to prevent occurrences in the future. This alert indicates general agreement that “care should be taken to weigh the medical necessity of a given level of radiation exposure against the risks, and that steps should be taken to eliminate avoidable exposure to radiation.” This message concurs with the message that the ACR has been sending to its members, patients and the general public for several years.
However, the alert indicates that the CMS January 2012 requirement for accreditation of CT, MRI, and PET was promulgated “as a result of the potential dangers associated with ionizing radiation.” The ACR, a sponsor of the legislation requiring this accreditation, considers this statement inaccurate, first because the legislation is aimed primarily at ensuring a high level of quality for these modalities, including inspection and evaluation of image quality and, second because MRI, a component of the accreditation requirement, produces no ionizing radiation.
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