New Fact Sheet on an Overuse of Imaging Measure Now Available

As a Center of Excellence for the AHRQ-Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Pediatric Quality Measures Program (PQMP), Q-METRIC (Quality Measurement, Evaluation, Testing, Review, and Implementation Consortium), at the University of Michigan, developed a measure to assess the performance of imaging studies with radiation doses “as low as reasonably achievable” (ALARA) for children under the age of 18 years. The measure assesses the percentage of facilities with a policy for ALARA dosing of radiation, specific to the imaging of children. A higher percentage of facilities with an ALARA policy specific to children indicates better performance, as reflected by use of minimal radiation when imaging.

Go to:http://www.ahrq.gov/policymakers/chipra/factsheets/chipra_15-p004-ef.pdf