At this year’s RSNA, the AHRA: The Association for Medical Imaging Management and Toshiba announced the six recipients of the second annual Putting Patients First grant program.

This year’s Putting Patients First grant program was expanded to include imaging centers and three additional grants specifically for pediatric programs. The six recipients were selected by the AHRA selection committee to receive up to $7,500 grants to fund programs, trainings or seminars aimed at improving patient care and safety in diagnostic imaging.

In its second year, this program has expanded its scope to include improving the imaging of children.  Children have special imaging needs – exposure to radiation and contrast are concerns within the industry, as is ensuring that children are well prepared for the imaging experience.  Putting Patients First will help facilities address these very specific needs.

“Grant programs like Putting Patients First are critical given today’s health care environment and the pressures hospitals face due to limited resources and other financial challenges,” said Debra A. Lopez, AHRA president, CRA, FAHRA. “This year’s winning programs demonstrated quality and innovation in patient care. They will make significant improvements to patient care and better the imaging experience for physicians and patients, alike.”

The programs funded by the AHRA/Toshiba Patient First grants include:

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston – Use of Bismuth Shields in All CT Exams

• Several recent publications report radiation dose reduction benefits when using bismuth shielding for pediatric patients undergoing multidectector CT. Therefore, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston will implement the use of bismuth shields in all patients undergoing CT examinations. Implementation of this shielding program will entail staff training, purchase of bismuth breast and thyroid shields, ongoing review of images, development of resident and parental educational programs, and a cost analysis.

Community Health Network – Pediatric CT Imaging Simulation Program

• By enabling pediatric patients to better understand the CT imaging process, radiation dose will effectively be reduced, patient comfort will be improved and the overall imaging experience will be safer. Therefore, Community Health Network will create an Internet-based simulation program to educate pediatric patients and their caregivers about the diagnostic imaging process (focused on CT).  By incorporating audio, avatars and animation through a user-friendly computer program, patients will know what to expect of the imaging process and be more comfortable and compliant during the procedure.

Memorial Hermann Outpatient Imaging Division – Improved Process Program

• Memorial Hermann’s goal is to emphasize the importance of keeping radiation dose during CT procedures as low as reasonably achievable for pediatric patients, while still maintaining good image quality. It also recognizes the need for more education for the technologists and pediatricians on pediatric radiation safety. Therefore, Memorial Hermann will implement the Improvement Process Program to: 1) document the dose electronically PACs; 2) scan once – multiphase scanning is usually not necessary in children; 3) reduce or “child-size” the amount of radiation used; 4) audit and evaluate image quality monthly; and 5) provide physician and technologist continued education.

Highline Medical Center – Improvement Project for Scheduling Inpatients for Imaging Exams

• One of Highline Medical Center’s goals is to provide a patient-centered environment that personalizes, humanizes and demystifies patient care. Therefore, Highland Medical Center is undertaking an improvement project to develop, implement and spread a process for scheduling inpatients for imaging exams to accomplish safer patient care through: 1) better communication among the staff caring for the patient; 2) increasing involvement of the patient in his/her own care; 3) better coordination between services for tests and treatments leading to streamlined clinical pathway; 4) eliminating delayed/missed or incorrect imaging exams; 5) improving patient flow to potentially decrease overall length of stay; and 6) having imaging techs rounding on patients prior to high risk, invasive or advanced imaging procedures.

Shields Health Care – Understanding and Reducing Patient Anxiety

• Shields Health Care wants to engage the patient in a common language that educates and reduces patient anxiety. Therefore, Shields Health Care will develop multi-lingual web-based tools as well as professional staff training. Phase one of the program will be to research causes and develop solutions; phase two will be to implement and cross train professionals and technical staff; and phase three will be dedicated to reflection on lessons learned and measuring program effectiveness and outcomes.

St. Patrick Hospital – Interactive Utility to Improve the Imaging Process

• Inaccurate or inappropriate exam orders contribute to increased costs to patients, staff and facilities in terms of dose, money and time. Therefore, St. Patrick Hospital will create on its intranet Web site an interactive utility that is readily accessible to all staff to provide guidance regarding appropriate imaging studies and help facilitate clear exam orders to maximize the value of imaging studies. Once the program is developed for intranet users, St. Patrick Hospital will provide a condensed version of the utility on its hospital Web site with more links to helpful information in order to improve patient understanding of the process. This version also will be a tool used by clinicians and staff when discussing exam specifics with patients.

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Improving patient care and safety in diagnostic imaging is an important issue to hospitals, physicians and administrators today. Helping to support this need, the AHRA, the association for medical imaging management announced grant recipients of the Patient First Program at this month’s Radiological Society of North America annual meeting in Chicago. The program was funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.

The first recipients include:

St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center’s “Best Practices in Computerized Tomography”
Focusing on the use of the ACR Appropriateness Criteria, this program will use evidence-based guidelines to assist referring physicians and other providers in making the most appropriate imaging and treatment decisions, coupled with the most appropriate scanning protocols for CT to image patients more safely.

Washington Hospital Center’s “Standardized Handoff Communication”
This program focuses on the use of green, yellow and red handoff forms as an effective tool to improve patient safety and outcomes.

Jennie Edmundson Hospital’s “Metformin Flagging Process”
This program uses barcodes for Type II diabetic patients’ armbands and IV contrast with the goal of developing a decision support rule that will alert pharmacists.

The Patient First Program will provide grants to hospitals to create programs, training and/or seminars to improve patient care and safety in CT, MR, Ultrasound, X-ray and X-ray Vascular diagnostic imaging and to develop best imaging practices to share with other hospitals.

“With hospitals being pressured to lower costs while continuing to provide the highest level of patient care, this type of program funding is more critical today than ever before,” said Edward J. Cronin, Jr., CAE and executive director, AHRA. “The Patient First grants will allow hospitals to fund important programs and training to improve the quality of care they offer.”

The AHRA will award three Patient First grants of $7,500. All eligible hospitals are encouraged to apply by completing an application at www.ahraonline.org or www.medical.toshiba.com. The deadline to apply is November 15, 2008.