[ RadSafe ] Dosimetry Reports

[Chris Alston]

Hans

I see this scenario as a HIPPA problem only if your employee denies
you the right to inform the dosimetry-service vendor of the
circumstances of the exposure.  Then you would not be able to advise
the vendor to adjust his/her records appropriately.  You would have to
write a note to file, and maybe in your quarterly/annual reports,
saying something to the effect that, while you were morally certain
that the reported dose was spurious, you could not further document
your claim.

Please note, I don't see that one would have to go into great detail,
either in one's on-site records, or in the documentation one offered
the service vendor.  One could simply state that one had established,
after interviews with the employee, and appropriate reviews of their
work environment, that the recorded exposure, or some fraction of it,
was not occupational in origin.  Of course, one would always cc the
employee and his/her maanger.  But, again, these are questions on
which the Offices of Risk Management, or corporate counsels, may have
different takes, at different institutions.

Cheers
cja


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Hans Wiegert <hans.wiegert at sealedair.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Dosimetry Reports
To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing
List" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>


The bi-monthly OSL dosimetry reports are reviewed by the plant RSO/ARSO for
any irregularities and kept on file. Each badgeholder  is made aware during
the *annual refresher training* that they have the right at any time to see
*their *exposure records. A copy is made and all other personnel data on
the sheet is blanked out. Under NO circumstance would we post the exposure
records of individuals for everyone to see!

The problem we have with HIPAA is the difficulty when investigating
abnormal dosimetry results since there are almost always the result of a
medical procedure.  For example, I had a stress test some time ago with
Tc-99m. Leaving the Cardiologist's office I was registering 18 mR/hr on my
Fluke Biomedical 451P - or about 50 times of what we allow on our equipment!

Best Regards,

Hans

Hans J. Wiegert
Sr. Electrical Engineer - ECL Technology
Regional Radiation Coordinator
CRYOVAC, Sealed Air Corporation