(MARTINSBURG, W.Va.) — West Virginia University Hospitals-East’s City Hospital has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in nuclear medicine as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR).
Nuclear medicine is a branch of medical imaging that uses small amounts of radioactive material to diagnose and treat a variety of diseases, including many types of cancer, heart disease, and other abnormalities within the body.
“City Hospital is the only facility in the area with a nuclear medicine service that is ACR accredited in all three modules: nuclear cardiology, planar and SPECT,” commented Sheila Hedden, nuclear medicine supervisor. “The accreditation process was an enormous undertaking, and we are very pleased to have been granted accreditation with the first submission,” she added.
The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting ACR Practice Guidelines and Technical Standards after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field.
Image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs are assessed. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice with a comprehensive report they can use for continuous practice improvement.
“We are very proud to be able to offer the highest quality in imaging services to our patients here at City Hospital,” said Selwyn Persad, radiology manager. According to Persad, the nuclear medicine service now joins mammography, MRI, and CT as being ACR accredited.
The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 34,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists. The organization focuses on the practice of medical imaging, radiation oncology, and delivery of comprehensive health care services.