Radiation Safety Auditing

Clinical auditing is based on a Decree of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (423/2000). The auditing pertains to medical activity involving exposure to ionizing radiation and is meant to complement the practitioner's own assessment of operations. Auditing takes place in five year intervals. In the first round of audits Qualisan audited over 350 units.

RADIATION SAFETY AUDITING

The auditing focuses on radiation units' and their staff members’ practices for examination and treatment of patients, the results of those procedures, and radiation exposure.

Results are compared to available information and experience on good medical practices. This benchmarking is particularly important when procedures are done on children, when the radiation exposure for a single procedure is extensive, or when there is a large number of procedures done.

Clinical auditing focuses particularly on the following aspects:

1 authorizations and defining responsibilities

2 referrals and recommendations for making referrals

3 practices and flow of information in assessments of justification

4 guidelines and practices for carrying out procedures involving radiation exposure

5 equipment used in examination and treatment

6 radiation doses resulting from procedures and results of examination and treatment

7 the quality, filing and flow of information pertaining to procedures

8 staff training

9 defining and using quality assurance functions

10 self-evaluation of operations, results of evaluation and using the results.

Duration of auditing

is determined by the size of the imaging, isotope and radiation therapy unit and the number of experts in the auditing group. The duration and the number of experts in the auditing group is planned by experts in the field of radiation use to ensure compliance with regulations and the appropriateness of the auditing process for the unit being audited.

Auditing report

includes a summary of the audit, central observations from the assessment of the 10 aforementioned aspects, and the auditors' recommendations for improvement and development. The report is always addressed to the unit being audited.

For more information, contact

Kirsi Miettunen
tel. +358 9 8566 8262
kirsi.miettunen(at)qualitor.fi

Soile Kuivalainen
tel. +358 9 8566 8261
soile.kuivalainen(at)qualitor.fi