Medical imaging plays a vital role in protecting your health. Whether it involves identifying and diagnosing an injury or illness or monitoring the progress of treatments you have received, procedures such as MRIs, CT scans, and ultrasounds or x-rays provide valuable insights to your physicians. At Intermountain Medical Imaging, our team of highly skilled radiologists has been providing state-of-the-art imaging to patients in the Boise, Idaho area for more than 20 years. Our facility is accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR), allowing you to have confidence in our ability to provide the quality diagnostic testing you need while adhering to the highest standards to ensure your overall well-being is protected.
What Does It Mean to Be ACR Accredited?
ACR accreditation is the gold standard when it comes to ensuring patients receive quality radiological care and diagnostic treatment. The ACR, which is comprised of more than 34,000 physicians, is the largest and oldest medical imaging accrediting body. According to the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, its accreditation program is the most widely established and well-proven method to confirm that imaging facilities are adhering to the highest possible industry standards.
To be accredited, imaging centers must voluntarily undergo a thorough and rigorous inspection. The ACR relies on an impartial, third-party peer review process to rate facilities in each of the following four areas, which impact the overall quality of patient imaging:
- Personnel Qualifications: The ACR will carefully review the qualifications of personnel employed at the facility. Accreditation, in general, is a team process, involving administrative staff, supervising physicians, and technologists.
- Equipment Quality: Equipment is reviewed to ensure it functions properly, is well maintained and can deliver the desired results.
- Image Quality: When dealing with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scans, and ultrasound, image quality is everything. The ACR will review the clarity and detail of images taken at the facility, based on submissions from actual patients.
- Patient Protections: The well-being and safety of patients is always the top priority. To protect them, the ACR checks to ensure medical imaging centers have the proper quality control measures in place.
While the main goal of ACR accreditation is to ensure patients get high-quality medical imaging they need to protect their health, the review process also serves to encourage imaging facilities to continue striving for excellence. The ACR makes recommendations designed to improve testing safety, efficiency, and effectiveness, so that accredited facilities conform with the latest standards set by the medical and scientific communities.
How ACR Accreditation Impacts Our Patients
The fact that Intermountain Medical Imaging is an ACR accredited facility positively impacts our patients in four important ways:
- Quality Assurance
One of the most common reasons for a medical imaging center to fail the accreditation process is due to a lack of image quality. For patients, this is a serious matter. Image blurring, a lack of clear detail, and errors in image clarity, orientation, or intensity are all issues that can cause your medical condition to go undetected, misdiagnosed, or otherwise untreated.
- Patient Comfort
Poor image quality also extends the overall amount of time testing takes, increasing the potential for patient discomfort and potentially wasting your time by requiring repeat visits. At Intermountain Medical Imaging, you can count on our ACR accredited radiologists to work efficiently and effectively to capture the clear, detailed images your doctor needs.
- Insurance Billing
Being ACR accredited also has financial benefits for our patients as well. While the review process is voluntary, accreditation is required for outpatient providers that intend to bill for CTs, MRIs, and other types of nuclear medicine to Medicare Part B. While this applies only to the technical component of your visit, it does allow us to expand the reach of patients we serve while helping you avoid the potential for expensive out-of-pocket costs.
- Accountability
The ACR provides accountability through its Notice to Patients. It provides clear instructions on how to submit any questions, concerns, or complaints you have about a facility, the testing processes, or the personnel so that the matter can be quickly addressed and resolved.
Contact Intermountain Medical Imaging Today
At Intermountain Medical Imaging, we have been a trusted provider for patients throughout the Boise area for over 19 years. When your doctor recommends medical imaging, make us your first choice. To find out more about the services we offer, contact Intermountain Medical Imaging today.
