Medical Radiation Safety Act of 2010 up for Final Vote

The Consumer Attorneys of California strongly support SB 1237, the Medical Radiation Safety Act of 2010 authored by Alex Padilla, as do other consumer groups. This bill had the problems of the patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as its source. These patients had received an overdose of radiation in 260 cases. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials found a scanner at Glendale Adventist Medical Center that gave up to four times the normal radiation dose to 10 patients.

To answer the question of how this bill SB 1237 will help the situation when this type of medical testing is often necessary and many diagnoses are made as a result of these tests, it will put safeguards in place that have been sorely needed.
In simple language, the bill will require that medical facilities will follow the regulations listed below:

1. The dosage of the radiation that is used in a CT scan of a patient is to be recorded at the time of administration. The bill also requires that this dosage be recorded in two different methods and that they are recorded on the patient’s record as well as on the scan.

2. The bill requires facilities that furnish CT X-ray services to be accredited by an organization approved by the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or an accrediting agency approved by the Medical Board of California (MBC) by January 1, 2012. This means that there will now be an accreditation process in place for facilities performing these tests.

3. There are medical technology issues in this bill, but to parse out what the consumer should know is that a facility now must report to the patient, the patient’s physician, and the Health Department certain events such as repeat CT due to machine malfunction, irradiating the wrong patient and/or the wrong body part, a diagnostic CT that exceed the normal protocol by 50% or more and some very technical calculations of dosages.

The Consumer Attorneys of California consider that with these safeguards in place by law, the patient population of California can once again obtain safe medical tests.

We at BISNAR | CHASE Personal Injury Attorneys are in favor of this Bill. When manufacturers of medical equipment fail to design safe machines, it’s up to the courts and the State legislators to take action. By passing this Bill, thousands of patients will be safer when being treated in hospitals within the state of California.

To learn about other important bills that can help consumers such as yourself, please visit the California Injury Blog to read about the Expedited Jury Trial Bill.

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