CHI St. Luke’s Health–Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center Receives Nuclear Medicine Accreditation
CHI St. Luke’s Health–Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center announced today that it has received a three-year term of accreditation in Nuclear Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology and PET imaging by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC).
IAC accreditation is a “seal of approval” that patients can rely on as an indication that the facility has been carefully critiqued on all aspects of its operations considered relevant by medical experts in the field of Nuclear Medicine. The IAC grants accreditation only to those facilities that are found to be providing quality patient care, in compliance with national standards through a comprehensive application process including detailed case study review.
More than 10 million Nuclear Medicine imaging and therapeutic procedures are performed each year in the United States. The imaging procedure is effectively used in a broad range of medical specialties, from pediatrics to cardiology to psychiatry, to safely diagnose and even treat disease. In adults, the test is used to identify and treat hyperthyroidism (Graves Disease), as cardiac stress tests to analyze the heart, bone scans for orthopedic injuries, lung scans for blood clots and liver and gall bladder procedures to diagnose abnormal function or blockage.
Through the use of Nuclear Medicine procedures performed within hospitals, outpatient centers and physicians’ offices, physicians are able to diagnose or rule out diseases in every major organ system in earlier stages than other available medical procedures. While these tests are helpful, there are many facets that contribute to an accurate diagnosis based on Nuclear Medicine testing. The skill of the Nuclear Medicine technologist performing the examination, the type of equipment used, the background and knowledge of the interpreting physician and quality assurance measures are each critical to quality patient testing.
The accreditation granted by IAC is widely respected within the medical community, as illustrated by the support of the national medical societies related to Nuclear Medicine, which include physicians, nuclear medicine technologists and medical physicists. When scheduled for a Nuclear Medicine procedure, patients are encouraged to inquire as to the accreditation status of the facility where their examination will be performed and can learn more by visiting intersocietal.org/nuclear/main/patients.htm.
