The risk manager at a community hospital reviewed occurrence report data trends over the last quarter and discovered an increasing trend of patients who arrived in the radiology department for an MRI who were not appropriate candidates due to having implanted metal devices. Speaking with the lead MRI technologist, concern was expressed that patients were not being correctly screened by the nurses on the units. The risk manager organized an interprofessional team from the nursing, medical, and MRI departments. After reviewing the MRI screening protocol, it was identified that a new scheduling system that had been put in place in the radiology department was so efficient at getting patients an MRI appointment, the unit nurses did not have time to complete an MRI patient screening between the time that the physician ordered the MRI and the time the patient went to the radiology department for the MRI. A new MRI screening protocol was immediately implemented in which the MRI order would now not be placed by the unit secretary until the RN communicated that the MRI patient screening was completed. This protected patients from a potential injury.

1.

Why is it important that patients with implants be identified on the unit by the nurse rather than later by the MRI technologist?

2.

How did the risk manager’s process of reviewing the MRI screening protocol contribute to solving this patient safety issue?