it s ef tuesday John Beall kicked off the AHRA General Session on Tuesday July 12 with a new name for the day EF Tuesday Standing for the AHRA Education Foundation of course As John went through all of the scholarship winners and the origination of the EF and FujiFilm scholarships it s clear how generous and giving AHRA members are and how much good will there is to help others along in their journey to becoming good imaging leaders Then Risha Grant our Day 2 Keynote speaker took the stage And wow we thought yesterday was magic This was reallife truth talking face your biases and share a laugh too type of magic Motivated by her passion to correct societal isms like racism sexism classism and plain old stupidism it is Risha Grant s personal mission to expose the subtleties and values of Diversity Equity Inclusion while shining a light on the impacts they create Reviews say that Her audiences leave with shifted hearts and minds that lead them to treat others with empathy kindness and compassion We felt that EF Tuesday and Risha Grant Keynote Extraordinaire 1 A message from AHRA Founder Louise Broadley 2 3 AUC Delayed Indefinitely What Now 4 Review of A Path to MR Safety Case Study in Three Acts 5
A Message from AHRA Founder Louise Broadley Presented at General Session Tuesday July 12 2022 Written by Gail Neilson and Howard Schwartz In recognition of AHRA s upcoming 50th anniversary celebration former AHRA National President Gail Nielsen presented a stirring message at Tuesday morning s general session from one of AHRA founding members Louise Broadley for whom an AHRAEF scholarship is named Ms Broadley current resides in Phoenix but at the age of 99 was physically unable to deliver her message in person Ms Broadley s message focused on the early impetus behind the AHRA s beginnings and the importance of sharing management acumen among those responsible for the daily operations of imaging departments Regardless of your field you need resources to learn as much as possible as fast as possible The importance of AHRA to my career revolved around learning from the AHRA sessions as well as individual members Ms Nielsen shared how back in 1972 Louise Broadley joined Jim Conway and began organizing hospital radiology managers in a new organization dedicated to providing focused learning resources Joined by colleagues from around the United States Louise helped organize and initiate the very first radiology managers meeting in 1973 in New Orleans and in doing so helped found the AHRA where she served many officer roles both regionally and nationally along with leading various member visits to China and Russia AHRA Convention Daily 2022 The AHRA was dedicated to providing opportunities for training new radiology managers and helping them advance in their organizations Learning provided by the AHRA allowed me to become the first technologist elevated to the administrative level taking care of budgeting and organizational management duties previously performed by the radiologists Committed to the principles of radiology management education Louise secured funding from her own organization to send members of her staff to various AHRA meetings Those staff members grew in knowledge problem solving and their ability to report back through knowledge sharing and presentations about what they learned Senior hospital administrators saw those benefits and continued to send me and many of my people to AHRA meetings
A Message from AHRA Founder Louise Broadley continued Ms Broadley s advice to current imaging administrators Radiologist leaders throughout the New York area continuously sought Louise out to help them replicate what she had developed in her own organization On her retirement Louise created the Louise Broadley scholarship in order to offer younger AHRA members the funding they needed to attend AHRA meetings To date this Scholarship has funded thirty three members since 2004 Ms Nielsen reflected on Louise s fifty years working for the New York Medical College serving in a variety of leadership roles in radiology and the Dean s office where she retired as an assistance professor of clinical radiology In her early years Louise had served three years in the United States Navy during World War II and transferred from the nursing corps to radiology at Bethesda Maryland where she earned her radiologic technology license and set up the first Navy School for Radiology Technologists Learning from the presentations at AHRA meetings as well as getting to know the other members attending these meetings makes a huge difference in solving problems at home Even when I heard a story about a problem I had yet to encounter at work along with possible solutions eventually that problem would surface in my own department for which I was well prepared in advance to appreciate and resolve Knowing other imaging managers everywhere was a tremendous never ending resource Reflecting on her thirty plus years of active AHRA membership Louise emphasized how the life long friendships she made are still a joy at age 99 Get involved get involved get involved Howard Schwartz and Gail Nielsen are both past presidents of AHRA AHRA Convention Daily 2022
AUC Delayed Indefinitely What Now Article by Nathan Baugh Capitol Associates Last Thursday July 7 the Appropriate Use Criteria website was updated with the following message NOTICE The payment penalty phase will not begin January 1 2023 even if the PHE for COVID 19 ends in 2022 Until further notice the educational and operations testing period will continue CMS is unable to forecast when the payment penalty phase will begin This indefinite delay of the penalty phase replaces the old timeline first January after the COVID PHE ends and yet another layer of uncertainty to the Appropriate Use Criteria policy While there is little we can say to fully eliminate this policy uncertainty the AHRA Regulatory Affairs Committee wanted to provide a few key facts to help our members make informed decisions First in June the American Medical Association AMA passed a resolution that calls for either the full repeal of the AUC program or legislative modifications to the program that can address the technical and workflow challenges that have contributed to the program s delay This resolution formally allows the AMA to lobby Congress to change the AUC statute AHRA Convention Daily 2022 Second last year Congress included non binding language in their appropriations legislation asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS to provide a report on AUC within 180 days Congress then passed the final appropriations package for FY 22 in mid March meaning that this report to the appropriations committee from CMS would be due in midSeptember This report could serve as the platform for CMS to explain in detail the difficulties they are having operationalizing the program Given these developments the AHRA regulatory affairs committee has requested a meeting with CMS to better understand what comes next We plan to engage with both the federal government and with other imaging stakeholder organizations to ensure that operational concerns are appropriately considered as AUC policy decisions are being made We hope to provide some much needed clarity to our community as soon as we can
Review of Path to MR Safety Improvement A Case Study in Three Acts Article by Brandi Baldwin Tobias Gilk never fails to deliver an eye opening knowledge rich presentation that keeps me on the edge of my seat This presentation included an incredible life experience from Elena Bell from JPS Healthcare She told us a gut wrenching story about an MRI department that was broken and struggling A place where the techs were in tears with no lunch nor time to take a bathroom break A team that wasn t a team at all It s hard to think about fellow techs who feel so vulnerable and unsafe that they have their own malpractice insurance Bell takes us through her path to turn this department around The information she shares about the steps she took to implement changes to their Epic EMR to improve workflow and safety as well as the training of the staff to improve their confidence and skill level captivated the audience She shared her struggles and sense of relief when her hospital made changes beginning with a drastic change in leadership and by bringing in the master of MRI Safety Tobias Gilk Gilk was able to provide Bell and JPS Healthcare with profound recommendations to change their MRI safety culture both within the department and across other departments within the facility Gilk and Bell walk through steps they took to rewrite policies create a report that harvested keywords from prior reports to identify unsafe conditions in scheduled patients and a device investigation workflow to reduce the number of patients who show up that have to be rescheduled The information presented here is perhaps the most important talk on patient safety and team transformation shared during this year s conference If you missed this presentation I highly recommend you catch their presentation if it becomes available in the AHRA Online Institute PS AHRA wants to wish Tobias a very Happy Birthday Thanks for presenting at AHRA 2022 on your birthday Tobias AHRA Convention Daily 2022