Re: Misadministrations -Reply

["Frank E. Gallagher, III" <fegallag@uci.edu>]

There are two recent developments in the medical uses of radioactive
materials that are having a detrimental effect on overall radiation safety
in nuclear medicine.   These include:

1) Non-nuclear medicine physicians, such as cardiologists and
psychiatrists, are now prescribing radioisotope studies away from nuclear
medicine departments.  These physicians seem to be much less interested in
physics (and rad safety) than the nuc meds.

2) To cut costs and because business gurus have been pushing use of temps,
hospitals are using nuclear medicine technologists from commercial services
rather than employing them directly as hospital employees.  This results in
a frequent turnover of techs with different people working from day-to-day,
resulting in much less management control by the nuclear medicine supervisors.

   
Frank E. Gallagher, III, MS, MPH, CHP  
Manager, Radiation Protection Section
Radiation Safety Officer 
Environmental Health & Safety Office
University of California, Irvine
300 University Tower  ||  Irvine, CA  92697-2725
(949) 824-6904  ||  Fax: (949) 824-8539
fegallag@uci.edu
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