Answer to Question #8053 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

A nuclear medicine clinic can be licensed just about anywhere, even on a recreational vehicle, as long as it meets the state or federal regulations and any commercial zoning requirements.

As far as the radiation safety regulators are concerned, the facility needs a qualified radiation safety officer, a qualified nuclear medicine physician, certified nuclear medicine technologists, and a comprehensive radiation safety program. The program must address all radiation safety issues with regard to their patients, their employees, and the public. The facility has to apply for a license and the regulators have an extensive checklist of items that they review before giving a radioactive material license to a facility.

The administrators of the facility must ensure that no member of the public can receive more than 100 mrem per year due to the operation of the facility. This is a federal regulation. The radiation safety officer usually places environmental dosimeters around the facility and monitors continuously to document to the public and the regulators that they are meeting the legal requirements. Environmental dosimeters are devices that measure radiation exposure, both from the facility and background radiation from the earth and outer space. Dosimeters are usually placed in the environment for a month or a quarter and continually changed out as long as the facility is in operation. Natural background radiation is approximately 1 mrem a day or 360 mrem in a year. 

As far as the facility being stand-alone or located in a hospital, there are many facilities that are not located in hospitals. The rationale is that the procedures can be performed on an outpatient basis and they are primarily diagnostic exams. There is little need for the resuscitation capabilities that a hospital can provide.

Marcia Hartman, M.S.