SIR publishes interventional radiology staffing recommendations

The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) has released new recommendations related to the proper staffing of interventional radiology suites, publishing them in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

“Interventional radiology is an integral component of modern health care and excellent patient care requires an efficient and effective interventional radiology department,” lead author Mark O. Baerlocher, MD, chief of interventional radiology at Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, said in a prepared statement. “Medical facilities need clear plans to adequately staff interventional radiology teams to ensure access to care and quality outcomes, particularly during off hours.”

“Adequate interventional radiology staffing ensures timely access to needed therapies, particularly in critical care situations,” Charles E. Ray Jr., MD, SIR president and interventional radiologist, professor, and chair of the department of radiology at the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said in the same statement. “Collaboration with other specialties is key to ensuring the flexibility and availability of staff to get the job done, on and off hours.”

In 2014, a survey of SIR members found that interventional radiologists had numerous complaints about interventional radiology staffing, noting “specific difficulties” gaining access to anesthesia services and support staff for on-call procedures.

Recommendations are separated into four categories: “Preprocedure and recovery,” “IR suite,” “Off hours (including on-call),” and “Special considerations.”

For example, under “Preprocedure and recovery,” the authors write that a general guideline for those areas should be one nurse to three patients, and that is in addition to nursing staff required in the IR suites. They add that once a nurse-to-bed ratio has been finalized, that number should be multiplied by 1.2 to 1.8 full-time equivalents per staff position due to vacation time, sick days, and so on.

The full recommendations are available on the JVIR website.