KY Board of Medical Imaging & Radiation Therapy
The proposed licensure board to replace the current technologist licensure program in Kentucky has successfully passed from the House
Health and Welfare Committee through the entire House with only small changes
to the original proposal. None of these changes affects the organization
or functions of the licensure board. Many thanks to Representative John
Will Stacy who sponsored and introduced the bill to the House. Now it is
on to the Senate committee and then to the entire Senate for passage.
At present, those who are working closely with this bill are
looking for a Senator who will sponsor the bill to that part of the legislature.
It looks as though we may have a sponsor in Senator Julie Denton who is also a
dental hygienist that recognizes the importance of self-oversight by
technologists.
You may read the text of the legislation at http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/12RS/HB137.htm
(click on the HB 137 hotlink to read the entire bill).
Radiographer certification has been a fact of life in KY since
1978 – a very progressive move for that time. In 2007, the KAR (KY
Administrative Regulations) were revised to include NMTs and RT(T)s. A
2011attempt to pass the current proposal was unsuccessful.
At 8000 certificates, we are the 3rd largest group of
health professionals in KY (following RNs and MDs). The breakdown is as
follows:
Radiographers ………….…5,900
NMTs ……………….……….545
Radiation Therapists …….….237
Limited Operators ………...1,070
Temporary Licensees ……….400
Other smaller groups such as Respiratory Care, Occupational
Therapy, Physical Therapists as well as Barbers and Auctioneers must have a
license to practice or work in KY. It seemed to be the right to make the
move to independent oversight of our work, our education, our practice
standards, and to take on the discipline of those who decide not to abide by
our standards.
With the public attention on radiation exposure from medical
imaging and other sources, we need a stronger and authoritative organization to
make sure that qualified individuals are the ones practicing medical imaging
and therapy in KY. Mirroring other medically oriented groups, we have
proposed a 9-person board with an executive director and clerical staff to
perform this work. With the expansion of fusion imaging in PET-CT,
SPECT-CT and the advent of PET-MRI among other new and innovative imaging methods
not yet developed, it is hoped that this proposed structure can respond more
quickly to the changes in national standards regarding who is qualified to
operate new technologies.
Of course fees are going to increase. Our current fee
structure is among the least costly of any certification in KY. What the
ad hoc group has heard all through this process is that fees are going up
whether our organizational structure changes or not. We are hoping that
the new structure will be able to represent and respond to our professional
needs in a way that the current structure cannot and that there will be value
added for each of us by whatever the new fees are through the work of this
board.
While I worked with the development of the legislation, those who
have continued to shepherd this proposal through the legislative process are
Andrea Cornuelle, NKU Radiography program; Jackie Darling, MSU Radiologic
Sciences program, Dewey Crawford, BCTC NMT program and formerly of the
Radiation Health Branch (retired) among others. A great deal of thanks
goes to all of you, those rank-and-file technologists who lent their support to
this process by calling their representatives asking for support of this
board. Andrea said that she overheard representatives talk about receiving
enthusiastic support from constituents for this legislation. (Also thanks
to Andrea for much of the factual information contained in this article.
It would not have been nearly so coherent without the material she has been
presenting to make our case.)
Those of you who receive email from me will be getting some more
when it is time to start to call our Senators. Please watch for it and
give it your support.
Charles H Coulston, MSEd, CNMT, ARRT(N)(R)
Lexington KY
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