Farmington, Maine –
The Imaging Department at Franklin Memorial Hospital (FMH) has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in nuclear medicine as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR).
Nuclear medicine is a branch of medical imaging that uses small amounts of radioactive material, ingested by or injected into the patient, to diagnose and treat a variety of diseases, including many types of cancers, heart disease, and certain other abnormalities within the body.
FMH employs three nuclear medicine technologists, Leslie Tainter-Pond, Adam Waleik, and Heather Poulin, all of whom are registered and certified. The department has state-of-the-art equipment, including a dual-head gamma camera, which picks up the isotope tracers and allows the organ functionality to be seen. A radiologist interprets the images and provides information necessary to make diagnosis and treatment decisions.
In addition to nuclear medicine tests to provide image of the internal organs, the FMH Imaging Department also provides mammography, ultrasound, Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), DEXA bone density, and x-ray.
The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting ACR Practice Parameters and Technical Standards after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field. Image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs are assessed. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice with a comprehensive report that can be used for continuous practice improvement.