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By Brian Lentz, FACHE, MBA, CRA, CNMT, ARRT(R)(N)
The second AHRA Denver area symposium was held on Thursday, August 27 at the fabulous Maggiano’s Little Italy Restaurant in Englewood, Colorado. This was our second local meeting since the AHRA Annual Meeting was held in Denver in 2008. We are always grateful to get together whenever possible to share stories, learn from each other’s expertise, and ask questions in the spirit of learning from one another.
The information packed program attracted approximately 50 imaging professionals from across the state of Colorado and also Wyoming and Kansas to gather for the evening. Almost all of the Denver area health systems, independent hospitals, and radiology groups were represented.
The evening’s educational offerings included a presentation on Healthcare Information Exchanges by Shawn McKenzie, MPA, Founder, President & CEO, Ascendian Healthcare Consulting and Jeffrey S. Messer, Chief Development Officer, CORHIO. The next presentation was Enterprise Patient Radiation Safety Program, also presented by Shawn McKenzie.
Both speakers were dynamic and presented practical information to build upon the good work we are already doing to take the best possible care of the patients we serve, specifically by providing the least amount of dose. Shawn discussed the Joint Commission’s guidelines on formulating and implementing a total CT dose management solution with the associated requirements. He also shared his opinions on the state of our current PACS storage and distribution solutions – specifically, that the current PACS configurations of server based archives are a thing of the past. Both topics offered much to reflect upon and gave us ideas as to how we, as imaging professionals, can confront our future challenges head on.
The meeting was the perfect balance of education, networking, great food, and fun. We made lots of connections and new friends. We all left looking forward to many more opportunities to get together on a local level in Denver.
Special thanks to our terrific sponsor David Hand and the team from Hitachi Medical Systems. This is the second time David and the Hitachi team have graciously sponsored a local event in Denver. Thank you also to AHRA’s Jillian Nanof for her expertise in organizing this meeting.
I am looking forward to seeing all of my mountain region colleagues next summer in Nashville for the 2016 AHRA Annual Meeting!
Brian Lentz, FACHE, MBA, CRA, CNMT, ARRT(R)(N) is the system wide radiology director at the Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, CO. He can be reached at brian.lentz@childrenscolorado.org.
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