AHRA and Toshiba Award Seven Grants to Hospitals

The Association for Medical Imaging Management (AHRA) and Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. announced the seven recipients of the fifth annual Putting Patients First grant program, which awards money to efforts designed to improve existing education and patient care initiatives in diagnostic imaging. Six grants of up to $7,500 were awarded to hospitals, three focused on pediatrics and three on overall imaging, and one grant of up to $20,000 was awarded to an Integrated Delivery Network (IDN)/hospital system. For pediatric imaging, grants were awarded to Crouse Hospital (Syracuse, NY), which will acquire two moveable lead walls to reduce radiation dose to neighboring NICU babies during infant X-ray exams; Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (Hartford, CT), which will acquire two “laser localizer” accessories for use in training to reduce patient exposure to ionizing radiation during procedures that utilize 9900 C-arms; and Mission Children’s Hospital Reuter Outpatient Center (Asheville, NC), for their Child Life Intervention to Prepare Children for MRI Procedures program, which establishes therapeutic play to reduce anxiety prior to imaging exams. The general program winners include Methodist Hospital (Houston, TX), for their Commit to Sit program, which establishes early communication with patients to improve safety and satisfaction through open dialogue and active listening; Catalina Island Medical Center (Avalon, CA), for ACT Now, which improves patient comfort through protocols to reduce radiation exposure, contrast usage, and infection during ultrasound and CT procedures; and Salem Township Hospital (Salem, IL), for CT Contrast & Weight-Based Dosing, which improves safety while providing weight-based dosing, quality assurance metrics, and automatic documentation and integration into PACS and RIS. The IDN grant was awarded to Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio for their Radiology Patient & Family Education Program, which will provide educational materials about radiation dose to patients and their families. In addition to the grants, all winning programs will be featured in an AHRA publication. The Putting Patients First program is funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.