RPRP - Quality Assurance Program

Radiation Exposure and Image Quality Statistics for All Facilities Performing AP Lumbar Spine Radiographs

Radiation Exposure

(Before QA (year 0) and QA (years 1-7))


Patient radiation exposure measured as “Entrance-Skin-Exposure” (ESE) and reported as milliroentgens (mR)	Machines that measured high or extremely high patient radiation exposure decreased from 37% in the first year to 10% in year-seven of the quality assurance program.

X-ray Image Quality

Image quality scores are measured and reported on a scale of zero to one hundred. Image quality scores are determined by the inspector’s evaluation of a radiograph taken of an image quality phantom tool and processed using the facility’s x-ray film/digital processor. The total image quality score is compiled from the inspector evaluating in six areas including background density, high contrast resolution, low contrast resolution, density uniformity and noise/artifact. Image quality scores of 0-29 are reported as poor; 30-49 as fair; 50-69 as good and 70 or greater as excellent image quality.

Image quality scores have dramatically improved from year-one to year-seven of the quality assurance program. In year-one, 52% of machines evaluated had image quality scores of 49 or lower. In year-seven, 11% of all machines evaluated had image quality scores or 49 or lower.

Back to QA Page