MAMMOGRAPHY ACCREDITATION AND EQUIPMENT PERFORMANCE

Not all sites performing mammography produce optimal images at accepta bly low doses. To address this situation, a voluntary accreditation pr ogram was instituted through the American College of Radiology. Each s ite applying for accreditation completes a detailed questionnaire abou t facilities and equipment, personnel, and quality control. Each unit at each site is evaluated by a medical physicist for clinical and phan tom image quality and for average glandular dose. Although a site is a ccredited for 3 years, the performance of each unit is audited annuall y. Of 11,162 units for which accreditation was sought, only 5,856 (68% ) passed at the first attempt, with another 18% passing after reapplic ation. The major reason for failure was inadequate clinical images, fo llowed by inadequate phantom images, both inadequate clinical and phan tom images, and inadequate quality control records. In a performance a udit of 20 new units, an average of 5.8 problems were encountered per unit, the majority of which adversely affected image quality. These re sults support the requirement of equipment performance audits and rais e the question of whether similar problems exist in other areas of med ical imaging.