Radiation Oncology Accreditation History
The American College of Radiology's history of developing and administering accreditation programs that assess the quality of imaging facilities dates back to 1963. In 1987, the ACR introduced the Mammography Accreditation Program. This program attracted widespread, voluntary participation from facilities wanting to be recognized for performing quality mammography. In 1992, the federal government mandated that all mammography facilities be accredited.
Based on the mammography program's success and the wide variation observed both in image services and in the quality provided by health care facilities, the ACR developed other, modality-specific accreditation programs. These programs include Radiation Oncology (1986), Ultrasound (1995), Stereotactic Breast Biopsy (1996), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (1996), Breast Ultrasound (1998), Nuclear Medicine (1999), Computed Tomography (2002) and Radiography/Fluoroscopy (2002). The purpose of the accreditation programs is to set quality standards for practices and help them continuously improve upon the quality of care they give to their patients. Designed to be educational in nature, the ACR Accreditation Programs evaluate qualifications of personnel, equipment performance, effectiveness of quality control measures, and quality of clinical images. It is believed that these are primary factors that affect the quality of clinical images and ultimately the quality of patient care.