Organization: Hamilton Health Sciences

Project: Development of a New Model for Patients to Receive Contrast Media for CT Scans Without Having a Radiologist Present

Contact: Lynne McCutcheon

Hamilton Health Sciences set out to improve access to CT and MRI services and reduce the waiting time for these examinations to an acceptable level by extending the hours of operation.   To achieve this goal, an injection protocol was developed and evaluated to allow the intravenous injection of non-ionic contrast media by a designated medical radiation technologist or registered nurse without a radiologist or physician present.  

This project is innovative because HHS reviewed an existing policy that stated a physician must be present during contrast injection, and revised the policy because the type of contrast had changed since the policy was written 20 years ago.   This change led to CT and MRI services extending the hours of operation. The current wait time has been reduced from six to 12 weeks to approximately five weeks.