Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China, has suspended staff members and issued an apology after a patient was left unattended in an MRI scanner for nearly six hours following a scan, according to an article posted March 13 in Global Times.
The patient underwent the scan for neck soreness. An attending physician marked the procedure as complete in the hospital system at 12:10 a.m. local time while the patient remained in the machine, and a colleague who took over the shift failed to check whether anyone was still in the scanner, according to multiple media reports.
The hospital said an internal investigation found that on-duty radiology staff had violated work discipline and shift handover procedures. It has established a special task force to implement rectification measures, and a hospital-wide review of potential medical safety risks has been launched.
