Keywords:
Workforce, Education and training, Safety, Medico-legal issues, Audit and standards, Fluoroscopy, CT, Conventional radiography, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Radiographers, Quality assurance
Authors:
A. Doyle, J. J. Binghay, R. crawley; Dublin/IE
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-3548
Aims and objectives
Introduction:
Misidentification of patients should be a ‘never event’ in radiology departments; however in a large teaching hospital in Dublin and almost all other hospitals nationally in Ireland there are several reports per annum of patients receiving wrongful exposures to ionising radiation.[1] Where there is a risk of a patient being misidentified in a radiology department there is also a risk to the patient’s safety as they may receive a wrongful exposure to ionising radiation and this must be addressed.
Checklists have been shown to improve patient safety,
this has been demonstrated effectively with WHO’s theatre checklist (2) and the Society and College of Radiographers (SCOR’s) PAUSED and checked checklist.(3) With this in mind our radiation safety team examined the possible use of a checklist in reducing the risk of wrongful exposure to patients.
Aim:
To eliminate the misidentification of patients undergoing radiology examinations via introduction of a radiation safety checklist.