Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2021
Keywords:
Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Plain radiographic studies, Audit and standards, Quality assurance
Authors:
V. Tsapaki, M. Mikhail, O. PELLET, D. Paez, H. Delis
DOI:
10.26044/esi2021/ESI-14440
Results or findings
QUAADRIL audits have taken place in 7 institutions in 7 countries from 2010 till today: two (2) in Europe (Bosnia & Herzegovina and Belgium), 4 in Asia (Israel, Thailand, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates) and 1 in Latin America (Argentina) (Figure 3). Coordinated by the IAEA, the audits provided recommendations to each institution to improve their practices.
There were extensive reports given to each institution which obviously cannot be described in detail due to confidentiality issues. However, there were certain findings that are considered important and are outlined below:
- In most cases referral guidelines were not used routinely.
- Greater engagement of staff in the quality management (QM) process was recommended, noting that continuous education is requisite to enable personnel to understand its benefits, implement them on a daily basis, and sustain a culture of quality and safety practices.
- At several sites, a shortfall in the number of medical physicists working in radiology departments was identified, fewer than needed to meet clinical demands. Granted the key role of the medical physicist in a radiology department, recommendations were made towards legal recognition of the medical physicist among multidisciplinary medical professionals, and towards a certification process in countries where it does not yet exist.
Thus far the audited institutions were large public hospitals with established quality control and quality assurance programmes. All of them reported that the audit benefited their local practices.