REGINA – The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) says 47 patients need to have another MRI after a lengthy series of errors.
Forty-seven RQHR radiology patients are being notified by letter that they may require another MRI due to ‘insufficiently detailed testing’.
Patients received spine and head MRI scans between October 2014 and July 2015. These patients should have received a scan which included a contrast study, but instead got a non-contrast study.
The patients were referred to the Mayfair Community clinic, which did not even have the ability to do contrast studies at the time. The Mayfair facility now conducts those contrast studies.
RQHR made a processing error by sending the patients to the facility, but say there was no error made in reading test results and they have no concerns with assessment, triage or diagnosis by the radiologists.
“RQHR apologizes to all patients affected by this error,” said Dr. David McCutcheon, Vice President, Physician and Integrated Health Services.
“We cannot know if any patient harm has occurred until the referring physician has had the opportunity to review the individual clinical situation. We believe that the risk is minimal; however, the potential exists that as some patients may have not received a full investigation, they therefore may not be receiving the treatment they require. Any impact would depend on the individual patient and cannot be known until information is received from the referring physician, and any required additional scan is completed.”
RQHR has mailed letters to affected patients, and will contact all physicians with identified patients via telephone as well as by letter.
RQHR referred more than 5,265 MRIs last year and to date believe only these 47 patients identified are affected by this mistake.
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