An ACR MRI Safety Manual Overview
In this post, we are providing an overview of the 2020 ACR MRI Safety Manual.
In 2013, the ACR published a white paper on MRI safety, and then in 2020 there was an update to that white paper that came in manual form. The intent of this manual was to be used directly by radiology technologists and imaging centers to have policies and procedures that would be more directly applicable to safety in the clinical environment.
Most of the manual is essentially unchanged from the 2013 white paper. There are sections that are identical and there are other sections that are largely the same. Then, there’s been some changes since the 2013 white paper into the 2020 manual.
Watch the video below on our YouTube channel as Eric walks you through an overview of the ACR Safety Manual for Magnetic Resonance Imaging procedures.
What Are The Significant Changes in The 2020 Manual?
The most significant change is the designation and delegation of duties of:
- the MR MD or the MR Medical Director
- the MR SO or the MR Safety Officer, and
- the MR SE or the MR Safety Expert
The manual does a really good job of outlining a good MRI safety program structure with these three positions.
Is The Manual a Requirement for ACR Accreditation?
One thing to point out about the manual is that even though it uses words like shall, will and must, the manual itself is not a requirement of ACR accreditation.
Whenever you apply for ACR accreditation or are inspected by an ACR inspector, they’re not going to check to see if you’ve implemented this particular manual. They’re going to look to see that you have safety policies in place. Those safety policies can be the ones out of the manual, which is the intent of them providing the MR Safety Manual. However, they can also differ from what’s in the manual. You are not necessarily beholden to the exact verbiage that’s in the manual, but it’s a really good starting point for developing your own policies and procedures for your specific MRI department.
An Overview of the ACR Manual
The manual itself is 56 pages long. It’s quite a thorough manual and it provides excellent information on MRI safety. The idea behind it is that you use the manual and that you implement the policies and procedures in the manual, or at least some version of them in your own policies and procedures for your MRI department. You can find this MRI safety manual on the ACR website.
Table of Contents
The Table of Contents provides an overview of the manual’s general layout. You can see there are many different sections within the manual. Within these sections, there are specific policies or procedures that you’re going to need to be compliant with the ACR.
Examples of Policies and Procedures
Within the safety manual, you can find policies or procedures on elements such as:
- policies on personnel and non personnel
- who MR technologists are
- the differences between level one and level two trained staff
- policy for screening right here staff as well as patient screening
We also have pediatric policy as well as policy for pregnancy. The manual cover things like sedation, as well as contrast policy. It covers implants, devices and objects and how we screen for them.
The manual discusses several things in the MRI environment, such as the different MRI zones, the MRI contrast agent safety and responding to codes. There is coverage on hearing protection as well as thermal heating. All of those topics are going to be found in the manual.
There’s also a new appendix. Appendix one talks about the organizational structure for the MRI safety program. Appendix two reviews facility safety designs. And Appendix three reviews emergency preparedness.
And that’s a snapshot on the ACR MRI safety manual that came out in 2020. We’re sure there will be newer versions of this at some point in the future, but for now, this is a really good place to start and use as a resource for the development of your own policies and procedures in creating a safer MRI department for staff, patients and visitors.
If you have questions about the MRI safety manual or questions about MA safety in general, feel free to drop a comment or send us an email. We’ll be happy to take a look at your MRI department, talk about your policies and procedures and see how we might be able to help.
If you require assistance with your MRI safety program or MRI physics testing, please reach out or click here to learn more about our medical and health physics services. You can also always reach out to us if you have questions or want more information on why you should partner with us.