MRI Safety: The Current Regulatory Environment — What Your Facility Needs To Know

As someone responsible for a clinical MRI facility, or involved in the construction
and planning of these spaces, you understand the critical importance of maintaining rigorous safety protocols to ensure the well-being of patients and staff. The challenge often lies in navigating the various professional and accrediting bodies’ published safety recommendations and guidelines. Metrasens is here to help. We offer a comprehensive summary of the current status and growing adoption of ferromagnetic detection systems (FMDS)to prevent MRI projectile incidents

Who has issued guidelines related to FMDS?
The following bodies have published recent guidelines:

American College of Radiology (ACR)
The ACR created a “multidisciplinary blue-ribbon panel” to address critical issues in MRI safety. Originally published in 2002, the 7th edition of the document was published in June 2024.
Latest publication: ACR Manual on MR Safety, 2024.

Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
The Veterans Health Administration is America’s largest integrated healthcare system, serving 8.76 million Veterans each year.
Latest publication: VHA Handbook, Magnetic resonance imaging safety, 2012.

American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and The Facilities Guidelines Institute (FGI)
ASHE is a membership group of the American Hospital Association and is the largest association devoted to optimizing the health care physical environment. FGI is a non-profit entity that provides leadership and continuity to the Guidelines revision process.
Latest publication: Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals 2018 edition.

The Joint Commission (TJC)
Accredits and certifies more than 20,500 healthcare organizations and programs in the USA.
Adopt ASHE/FGI Guidelines when performing their hospital accreditation surveys.

FMD Requirements by State
The majority of states follow the FGI guidelines.
FMD systems are required in the 2010 edition onwards. In addition, for facilities accredited by The Joint Commission when state regulations are silent on a particular design criterion, the Joint Commission recognizes the 2018 FGIGuidelines under their
Environment of Care Standard EC.02.06.05. This means that the individual design standards within FGI Guidelines are required if the standard used by an individual state doesn’t speak to the criteria of that standard. Said simply, if your state referenced the standard doesn’t speak to whether you need to do something, and FGI does; if you’re a JointCommission-accredited facility, you need to do it. The two specific MRI requirements that don’t appear in many state-written or older FGI healthcare design codes that do appear in the 2018 FGI is the ACR 4-zone and ferromagnetic detection systems (FMDS) requirements.
This means that every Joint Commission-accredited hospital is likely required to provide 4-Zone protection and FMDS in every new or retrofit MRI suite.

Review your specific state’s requirements by visiting:
https://www.fgiguidelines.org/guidelines/state-adoption-fgi-guidelines

What Can I Do To Better Understand My Options For Making Sure I’m Compliant with These Requirements and Build Codes?
CONTACT YOUR DEDICATED MRI SAFETY SPECIALIST AT METRASENS.
Metrasens is here to provide you with expert guidance on implementingFerromagnetic Detection Systems within your facility, guaranteeing your safety and compliance. Moreover, we are committed to optimizing your workflow, ensuring a seamless and efficient operational process.