EMERGING TRENDS IN PATENT SAFETY AND QUALITY IN MEDICAL IMAGING


EMERGING TRENDS IN PATENT SAFETY AND QUALITY OF  MEDICAL IMAGING

By

Prof.M. THANGA DARWIN

INTRODUCTION    

“Patient safety is a precarious component of medical imaging quality

Improving Quality through Patient Safety

Patient safety is the cornerstone of high-quality health care and medical imaging. ”

                  In modern environment of rapid growth and technological advancement, radiologic technologists face a number of challenges when new and emerging technologies are introduced or when equipment upgrades occur. Hence every technologist need to update their knowledge. This paper focus on modern trends in safety and quality in medical imaging.



PATENT SAFETY

                 The simplest definition of patient safety is the prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients associated with health care. While health care has become more effective it has also become more complex, with greater use of new technologies, medicines and treatments.



QUALITY IN MEDICAL IMAGING

                       The standard and excellence of Medical Specialty that uses X-rays, gamma rays, high frequency sound waves, magnetic fields or isotopes to produce images of organs and other internal structure of the body. The specialty aims to detect & diagnose disease as well as to carry out interventional procedures to confirm the diagnosis and treat certain diseases and abnormalities.



10 TOP PATIENT SAFETY ISSUES FOR 2016

1.      Medication errors.

2.      Diagnostic errors.

3.      Discharge practices to post-acute, home care.

4.      Workplace safety.

5.      Hospital facility safety.

6.      Reprocessing issues.

7.      Sepsis.

8.      "Super" superbugs.

9.      The cyber-insecurity of medical devices.

10.  Going transparent with quality data.

FACTS ON PATIENT SAFETY - WHO

1. Patient safety is a serious global public health issue.

2. One in 10 patients may be harmed while in hospital.

3. Hospital infections affect 14 out of every 100 patients admitted.

4. Most people lack access to appropriate medical devices.

5. Unsafe injections decreased by 88% from 2000 to 2010.

6. Delivery of safe surgery requires a teamwork approach.

7. About 20%–40% of all health spending is wasted due to poor-quality care.

8. Delivery of safe surgery requires a teamwork approach.

9. Patient and community engagement and empowerment are key.

10 Hospital partnerships can play a critical role.



INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION FOR PATIENT SAFETY INCIDENT TYPE


1. Clinical Administration

2. Clinical Process/Procedure

3. Documentation

4. Healthcare Associated Infection

5. Medication/IV Fluids

6. Blood/Blood Products

7. Nutrition

8. Oxygen/Gas/Vapour

9. Medical Device/Equipment

10. Behaviour

11. Patient Accidents

12. Infrastructure/Building/Fixtures

13. Resources/Organizational Management


INTERNATIONAL PATIENT SAFETY GOALS

                Goal 1 - Identify Patients Correctly.

    Goal 2 - Improve Effective Communication.

    Goal 3 - Improve the safety of high-Alert Medications.

    Goal 4 - Ensure correct Site, Correct Procedure, Correct Patient Surgery.

    Goal 5 - Reduce Risk of Health Care-Associates Infections.

    Goal 6 - Reduce the Risk of Patient Harm resulting from fall.

7 ALARA (“AS LOW AS REASONABLY ACHIEVABLE”) A PRINCIPLES FOR REDUCING RADIATION EXPOSURE

How can you reduce external radiation exposure?

1. Time:

               Reducing the time of exposure can directly reduce radiation dose.

2. Distance:

                               Increasing the distance between you and the radiation source you will reduce exposure by the square of the distance

3. Shielding:

                         Lead or lead equivalent shielding for X-rays and gamma rays is an effective way to reduce radiation exposure.

How can you reduce internal radiation exposure?

4. Good Hygiene:

                                  By eliminating the presence of food and drink in areas where radioactive materials are used or stored, and controlling “hand to mouth” habits, the risk of internal radiation exposure is reduced.

5. Control of Contamination:

                         Labelling radioactive and potentially radioactive areas and items will help prevent the spread of contamination.

6. Airborne Hazards:

                                   Using fume hoods and avoiding dust, aerosol, or volatile gas production can reduce the potential for inhalation of radioactive substances.

7. Use Proper PPE:

                                   Using the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) such as disposable gloves, safety glasses, lab coats, etc





METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO DRIVING    IMPROVEMENT OF SAFETY AND QUALITY


This article introduced following methodological approaches to improving safety and quality in medical imaging. They are

1.      Total quality management (TQM).


2.      Quality assurance.

3.      Model for improvement.

4.      Enrich Workplace Culture.

5.      Psychological safety.

1.      Total quality management (TQM)

                            Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive and structured approach to organizational management that seeks to improve the quality of Medical Imaging and services through ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedback by means of plan, do, check and act.


2.      Quality assurance

                       Quality Assurance Programs for Diagnostic Radiology Facilities. “Quality  assurance”  means  the  planned  and  systematic  actions  that  provide  adequate  confidence that a diagnostic x-ray facility will produce consistently high quality images with minimum  exposure  of  the  patients  and  healing  arts  personnel. 

Quality assurance actions include both “quality control” techniques and “quality administration” through following procedures.



                       (1)   Responsibility

(2)   Purchase   specifications

(3)   Monitoring   and   maintenance

(4)   Standards for image quality.

(5)   Evaluation.

(6)   Records

(7)   Manual

(8)   Training

(9)   Committee.

(10) Review.







3.      Model for improvement

                       The Model for Improvement, developed by Associates in Process Improvement, is a simple yet powerful tool for accelerating improvement. The model is not meant to replace change models that organizations may already be using, but rather to accelerate improvement. This model has been used very successfully by hundreds of health care organizations in many countries to improve many different health care processes and outcomes.



The model has two parts:



a.       Three fundamental questions, which can be addressed in any order.

b.      The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle to test changes in real work settings. The PDSA cycle guides the test of a change to determine if the change is an improvement.







4.      Enrich Workplace Culture

Culture is the character and personality of health care organization. It's what makes your organization unique and is the sum of its values, traditions, beliefs, interactions, behaviours, and attitudes. Here's an overview of why workplace culture is important, what affects it, and how to define it. Thorough planning and strategizing in a safety-minded culture optimizes the use of tools available for reporting and tracking estimated doses and for process improvement. In medical imagining material and non-material cultural traits should be enrich.




5.      Psychological safety

                              Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected. It is also the most studied enabling condition in group dynamics and team learning research.

Understanding and improving patient safety the psychological, social and cultural dimensions. Compassionate care for client in medical image settings. The patient psychological needs should be fulfil for safety and quality of medical imaging .





STANDARDIZING PATENT SAFETY AND QUALITY IN MEDICAL IMAGING IN INDIA     

Emerging trend in India is that every heath care imaging deportments should be accredited to standardizing safety and quality.

National accreditation board for hospitals & healthcare providers (NABH)

General Guidelines Pertaining to all Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging Services

23 standards

95 objective elements

Standards are grouped into six chapters

CHAPTER 1 Control of Services:

a. Medical Imaging Service ensures delivery of the service from point of referral to discharge.

b. Medical Imaging Service ensures that the delivery of services is patient focused.

CHAPTER 2 Control of Imaging Processes and Procedures:

Medical Imaging Service ensures the acquisition of optimal diagnostic quality images and performance of diagnostic procedures.

b. Medical Imaging service ensures the quality (clinical and technical) of reports

c. Medical Imaging service ensures quality of interventional procedures

d. Medical Imaging service ensures proper management of drugs and contrast media.

Chapter 3(CFE) Control of Facility and Environment:

a. Medical Imaging service ensures proper management of facility

b. Medical Imaging service ensures proper management of environment of the facility.

Chapter4 (CP) Control of Personnel:


            a. Medical Imaging service ensures authorization, management and support to staff to deliver the service.

b. Medical Imaging Service ensures that the staff is competent to deliver the service assigned to them.

c. Medical Imaging Service ensures service and workforce review, planning and development.

Chapter 5(CE) Control of Equipment:

a. Medical Imaging Service ensures appropriate procurement and installation of the equipment's.

b. Medical Imaging Service ensures appropriate operation and working of the equipment's.

c. Medical Imaging Service ensures appropriate maintenance and repair of the equipment’s.

d. Medical Imaging Service ensures appropriate replacement of existing equipment &planning for new equipment for continuation and expansion of service.

Chapter 6(CDR) Control of Documents and Record:      

a. Medical Imaging Service ensures generation, completion, revision, retention and dissemination of information documents for staff, patients and others.

b. Medical Imaging Service ensures procurement and maintenance of documents of legislative and statutory requirements related to facility, equipment and risk monitoring.

c. Medical Imaging Services ensures maintenance and updating of personnel data records of all staff.

Chapter 7 (RCS) Risk control and safety:
           a. Medical Imaging Services ensure that the risk associated with imaging  

                    procedures are identified, assessed, managed and minimised.

b. Medical Imaging Service ensures that the risk of infection to staff, patient and others is identified, assessed, managed and minimised.

c. Medical Imaging Service ensures that the risk associated with hazardous

substances and materials to staff, patient and others are identified, assessed,

managed and minimised.

d. Medical Imaging Service ensures that the risk of violence and aggression to staff, patient and others are identified, assessed, managed and minimised.

e. Medical Imaging Service ensures that the risk associated with fire, electrocution and other disaster to staff, patient and others and to facility and environment are identified, assessed, managed and minimise.

Benefits of Accreditation:

Benefits for Patients
Benefits for Medical Imaging Service
Benefits for Medical Imaging Service Staff
Benefits to paying and regulatory bodies

BEST PRACTICE

Efforts focus on better facilitating radiologist/radiologic technologist collaboration on care, feedback and quality improvement.

 Medical imaging departments develop staffing policies and procedures that facilitate safe patient care.

Medical imaging departments provide effective and efficient applications training for new and upgraded medical imaging equipment.

Medical imaging departments have quality management processes in place; vendors provide documentation and analysis tools that management uses effectively





CONCLUSION

                 Patients now have more information than ever and are empowered to understand the importance of safety and dose when undergoing medical imaging procedures. Radiologic technologists are poised to educate and protect patients. Collaboration of medical imaging stakeholders to support radiologic technologists’ education and efforts and to promote a culture of safety and lifelong learning can effect change in medical imaging.



References:

1.                  Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for Healthcare Organizations:   https://www.ecri.org/Pages/Top-10-Patient-Safety-Concerns.aspx

2.                  7 ALARA Principles for Reducing Radiation Exposure: http://blog.universalmedicalinc.com/7-alara-principles-for-reducing-radiation-exposure/

3.                  Patient Safety and Quality in Medical Imaging: The Radiologic Technologist’s Role: https://www.asrt.org/docs/default-source/whitepapers/asrt13_patientsafetyqltywhitepaper.pdf?sfvrsn=6

4.                  Conceptual Frame work for the International Classification for Patient Safety:http://www.who.int/patientsafety/taxonomy/icps_full_report.pdf

5.                  Global Initiative on Radiation Safety in Healthcare Settings: http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/about/GI_TM_Report_2008_Dec.pdf?ua=1

6.                  Hospital National Patient Safety Goals: https://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/6/2016_NPSG_HAP_ER.pdf

7.         NABH accreditation of medical imaging services: http://nabh.co/Images/PDF/mis-       gib.pdf

8.         The psychological and social needs of patients


9.         Quality Assurance Programs for Diagnostic Radiology Facilities


10. To download - Quality Council of India


11. The incidence of diagnostic error in medicine


12. 10 top patient safety issues for 2016




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