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JBSA News
NEWS | Aug. 10, 2012

SAMMC’s Nuclear Medicine Clinic receives ‘seal of approval’

By Marsha Huffman Brooke Army Medical Center Public Affairs

The San Antonio Military Medical Center's Department of Radiology-Nuclear Medicine Clinic was recently granted a three-year re-certification by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories.

The IAC accreditation is a "seal of approval" that patients can rely on as an indication that the facility has been carefully critiqued on all aspects of its operations considered relevant by medical experts in the field of nuclear medicine.

The program is to ensure high quality patient care and to promote health care by providing a mechanism to encourage and recognize the provision of quality nuclear cardiology, nuclear medicine and positron emission tomography (a imaging that detects changes in the body on a cellular level) diagnostic evaluations by a process of accreditation.

"The IAC Nuclear/PET accreditation is a foundation for us to create and achieve realistic quality care goals," said Patrick O'Brien, Nuclear Medicine Services supervisor at SAMMC. "Because the accreditation is renewed every three years, a long-term commitment to quality and self-assessment is developed and maintained," O'Brien added.


The IAC Nuclear PET accreditation is a voluntary process and granted only to those facilities that are found to be providing quality patient care, in compliance with national standards through a comprehensive application process including detailed case study reviews.

"This is a voluntary accreditation that we hope serves as an objective marker of excellence for our patients and referring providers," said Lt. Col. Kevin Banks, chief of Nuclear Medicine Services.

"It is a rigorous process, similar to the American College of Radiology accreditation achieved by our Women's Imaging Clinic, and SAMMC continues to be the only Department of Defense site to hold this accreditation," he added.