The American College of Radiology Committee on MR Safety recently released their refinements to the previously published ACR Guidance on MR Safe Practice Patient Safety. These refinements will be drafted into the ACR’s MR safety recommendations and outlined in the updated 2019 Guidance Document scheduled for release by the end of the year.
A significant change the ACR will be implementing is the recommendation for the use of a physical barrier to the MRI room when the door to the MRI room is open. The specific language reads:
“ZONE IV. The entry door to Zone IV (MR system room) should be closed except when it must be open for patient care or room/MR system maintenance. During the times that the door to the MR system room must remain open, a "caution" barrier is recommended at the entry to Zone IV to inhibit unintended passage of personnel and/or materials from Zone III to IV. Examples of caution barriers include easily adjusted straps or plastic chains secured across the scanner room doorway.”
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The Committee on MR Safety has identified a critical safety exposure in the lack of adequate access control and warning messaging whenever the door to the MR room is open. This first-time recommendation for the use of “caution” barriers at the doorway, acknowledges the real-world complexities of providing quality patient care and maintaining workflow efficiency while adequately restricting unintended access to the MR room.
What does the new recommendation by the Committee on MR Safety for caution barriers at the MR room door mean for you?
While the Committee on MR Safety has importantly identified a significant risk for unintended / unscreened access to the MR room, its recommendation for the use of adjusted straps or plastic chains as caution barriers doesn’t entirely hit the mark. It is readily observable, that the operation of these manually engaged barriers is overly cumbersome and as a result frequently prone to non-use. Additionally, it would seem the responsibility for the manual utilization of these measures and the liability for non-use, in every single instance in which the door is open, would now rest on already overtaxed MR personnel. Lastly, the recommendation for a manually deployed safety device will inherently be compromised by widely acknowledged human error factors such as fatigue, distraction, emotional stress and multitasking.
The TechGate Auto® MRI Barrier solution from Aegys has been specifically engineered to address the concerns raised by the ACR Committee on MR Safety. The automatic deployment of the LED lit warning barrier arm whenever anyone enters or leaves the MR room ensures that the open-door exposure is always addressed. Push button retraction of the warning barrier arm is part of the standard of care, operational “timeout” protocol established at safety conscious facilities and will not impede workflow like other manual deployed safety measures.
Automation and standardization of safety processes are critical to enhance institutional and personal safety around your MR practice and in the establishment of a proper culture of safety – TechGate Auto® does this for you.
Contact Aegys® today for more information on our MR safety solutions.
