May 11, 2010

Suburban Hospital fined $25,000 by state

Suburban Hospital has assigned staff to ensure that health care workers exposed to radiation on the job have their dosimeters checked monthly, after a radiologist at the Bethesda facility failed to turn in his device on schedule and got overexposed. The physician received 5.467 rems of radiation, 0.467 more than the annual dose allowed under health and safety regulations, after failing to turn in his dosimeter — a device which measures exposure to radiation — on time.

The hospital reported the overexposure in March 2009, said Rona Borenstein-Levy, spokeswoman for the hospital. Suburban Hospital agreed to pay the Maryland Department of the Environment $25,000 for the mistake, in addition to no longer relying on health care workers to protect themselves by voluntarily turning in the dosimeters.

According to the settlement agreement, "numerous" employees had failed to turn their dosimeters in "on the required schedule." Checking meters monthly can alert staff to the need to limit a worker's exposure.

The violation occurred before Suburban became a member of Johns Hopkins Health system in the summer of 2009. In March, MDE announced that Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore had agreed to pay a $370,000 penalty to settle 19 allegations that Hopkins allowed workers to use radiation machines without wearing dosimeters, radiated a part of a patient's body that was not supposed to be radiated, did not adequately secure or control access to radiation sources and did not use and maintain some radioactive materials and equipment in compliance with requirements set to ensure that workers and the public are protected. SOURCE: Gazette

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