PRESIDENT'S MESSAGES | SPRING 2002

By: Craig Dial, CRT
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The sub-committee of the Radiologic Technology Certification Committee (RTCC) will be holding a meeting on April 25th in the Los Angeles area and they will be discussing limited permit (LP) restrictions. The board has decided that it would be a good idea for me to attend, and I talked to Matt Kroona (AADMRT School Administrator) who also may attend.

This meeting will discuss the limitations outlined in California Code of Regulations Title 17 CCR 30442 & 30443, which prohibits LPs from performing procedures involving: scanned projection radiography, digital radiography, digital fluorography, and digital tomography. The RTCC has formed this sub-committee to study the education necessary to ensure radiographic procedures using computed tomography (CR) or direct digital radiography (DDR) are performed competently. Additionally, this committee will make recommendations to the RTCC for quality assurance procedures necessary to ensure CR and DDR equipment can produce quality clinical images.

I have attended previous RTCC meetings on this subject, and the sub-committee is interested in changing this outdated law. Under the current regulations, taking a panoramic would be considered scanned projection tomography, and the state knows that all LPs do panoramics. Plus many LPs are doing other types of digital, making the codes outdated. This is why the state regulations need an update of the codes, and an overview of the all the different types LPs doing the imaging.

We need to be aware of any of these changes that could effect us, and we need to make sure the state understands that by updating the status of our LPs we can freely change to digital x-ray which will help lower the radiation dose to patients, and lower the risk to operators. By switching to digital, our labs can keep current with technology, and provide improved patient diagnostics to our referring doctors.

I will address the organization on the outcome of this meeting in my next message, but if you are interested in knowing the result of the meeting, please contact me and I will share my thoughts with you. This assembly is open to the public, so if you are reading this before April 25th, and you want to attend, please let Matt Kroona or myself know and we can send you the information needed.