Standards changes for organizations providing diagnostic imaging services.

The Joint Commission recently approved standards changes for accredited hospitals, critical access hospitals, and ambulatory care organizations that provide diagnostic imaging services, including those ambulatory organizations that have achieved Advanced Diagnostic Imaging certification. The changes will be effective July 1, 2014, with additional requirements to be phased in by 2015. The standards changes relate to quality and safety issues that either needed to be more fully addressed (given the evolution of health care delivery practices) or that expand upon current Joint Commission requirements (such as those related to magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]). Because of the scope of this work, standards changes will be addressed using a phased approach. The first phase of these standards changes focuses on computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine (NM), positron emission tomography (PET), and MRI services. The second phase of this work, to be implemented in 2015, will focus on fluoroscopy, minimum qualifications for clinicians who perform imaging exams, and cone beam CT. Areas addressed in the new and revised standards include the following: