Dayton Children’s CT scanner earns ACR accreditation

The Children’s Medical Center of Dayton has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in computed tomography (CT) as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR). CT scanning — sometimes called CAT scanning — is a noninvasive medical imaging test that helps physicians diagnose and tailor treatments for various medical conditions.

“At Dayton Children’s we constantly seek to learn new and better ways to image children keeping their health and welfare above all else,” says Elizabeth Ey, MD, medical director of medical imaging at Dayton Children’s. “We consider each child and their condition individually in order to perform the most appropriate imaging study. We are thrilled that our CT scanner has once again been accredited by the ACR so we can continue to offer families in our region specialized pediatric imaging.”

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.

Dayton Children’s submitted an adult c-spine and a pediatric abdominal and chest CT studies for ACR review for reaccreditation.

The radiologists at Dayton Children’s are early adopters of the Image Gently pledge which promises to take certain steps to reduce the amount of radiation in patients. In order to ensure safe imaging of our patients Dayton Children’s:

• Requires all radiologists to be board-certified and have taken the Image Gently pledge
• Uses child-size radiation doses and follows American College of Radiology’s  “Imaging Gently” guidelines
• Works together with a child’s physician to ensure the correct procedure to minimize radiation. We may suggest an alternate way to image the child first without radiation if possible.
• Scans only the indicated area
• Reviews each order before scanning and assigning a specific protocol for the scan
• Uses shielding when it does not interfere with the area that we are imaging
• Screens each order to determine if sedation is necessary to minimize the need for repeats due to motion
• Routinely reviews our CT dose techniques to be sure we are using the smallest amount of radiation possible

The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 34,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs focusing on the practice of medical imaging and radiation oncology and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.

For more information, contact: 

Grace Rodney 

Marketing Communications Specialist 

Phone: 937-641-3666 

marketing@childrensdayton.org