Difficulties of Screening a patient

The emergency department called and wanted to know when I could get to a patient they had. At that time I wasn't busy so I said bring them down, just make sure they didn't have a pacemaker and never welded. I also asked if she could answer surgery history questions and if she could sign consent. They called me back and told me she was a nursing home patient and could not give me history and that there was no family member there to help me. They didn't have a record of any surgery history so I told them I couldn't perform the MRI until I got some history. They said her guardian was the state and gave me the nursing home number she was staying at. The emergency room doctor didn't like that I wouldn't do the MRI, so he called the radiologist and the radiologist told him the same thing that I told them. They don't realize the dangers of the unknown, they just want the test done. After spending 2 hours calling the guardian to give me consent and the nursing home to get surgical history, we finally got in touch with a family member who could give me the information I needed. Luckily during that 2 hours, I didn't have another patient to do on my screen or it would have put me way behind. It is very frustrating when something like this happens and then the emergency department doesn't understand why we do the things we do.

Parts I love about MRI

One thing that I love about MRI is helping people. I had a outpatient the other day that I was screening and she told me that she was claustrophobic. She was getting an MRI of her knee and I told her that she would be going in feet first. She started asking what kind of medicine we would be giving her. I told her that we didn't give medicine unless the order specifically stated to do exam with I.V. sedation. She told me that the nurse from her doctor's office said we would give her something. I just kept talking to her, calming her down and reassuring her that I would be in the room with her until she got in the machine and if she still couldn't do it I would bring her out immediately. She agreed and she finished the exam with no problems. It always feels good when you help a patient through an exam that they didn't think they could do it.

Introduction

Hi! My name is Robyn Dilger. I am thirty-seven and pregnant with my first child. I am starting late on having a family. I work at Owensboro Medical Health Systems. I am going back to school to get my BS- Radiologic and Imaging Sciences CT/MRI. I currently work in x-ray and MRI. I have been working at OMHS for going on 8 years and in MRI for 2 1/2 years. I wanted to learn more about the modality of MRI because I live working in the area. I hope to learn as much as I can with theses classes and I hope it will help me with the boards later on.

Welding and Grinding

The Emergency Department ordered a MRI-Lumbar spine on a gentleman and I called them to tell them to ask patient if they have ever welded or done grinding and if they had to go ahead and get eyes on him. They called me back and told me no pacemaker and never welded or grinding, so I told them to bring him down. They got to the MRI suite and before I let him in, I asked him again if he had a pacemaker and if he had ever welded or done grinding. He said no, however, I started the screening process and kept on asking him. He eventually said that since I am doing the exam on his back does it matter that he had welded. So I explained to him about the magnet and if he had metal in his eyes it could cause damage. So it is very important how well you do your screening process. The Emergency Department and the patients do not realize how dangerous the MRI unit can be, so we need to be careful and get a good screening.