KEMH Designated as Bermuda’s First Breast Imaging Center of Excellence

Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) is pleased to announce that the Diagnostic Imaging Department at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) has been designated as Bermuda’s first ‘Breast Imaging Center of Excellence’ by the American College of Radiology (ACR).

The ACR is an internationally recognized organization that sets the highest standards of procedure performance and image quality assessments, which are the cornerstone of their program. To earn the designation “Breast Imaging Center of Excellence”, KEMH passed all of the ACR’s voluntary breast-imaging accreditation requirements, including mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy, breast ultrasound and ultrasound-guided breast biopsy. KEMH has been accredited in mammography through the ACR for 14 years.

KEMH offers the island’s most comprehensive range of all-digital breast imaging technologies, including mammography, ultrasound, MRI, staging CT, Nuclear Medicine, and alongside its professional imaging technologists, has highly skilled and experienced radiologists, surgeons and oncologists on-site. Since 2003, KEMH has performed 1,436 stereotactic breast biopsies, 337 needle localizations and 1,014 ultrasound guided breast biopsies.

“We are extremely proud to join an elite group of US breast imaging centers in being recognized as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the ACR,” comments Renee Butterfield, Manager of Diagnostic Imaging at KEMH. “There are approximately 897 facilities that have this designation, which is about 24% of accredited facilities. This is the highest level of quality that can be achieved for breast imaging and the KEMH Breast Imaging Centre is the only service in Bermuda with this designation. Our mammography service has been accredited by the ACR since 1998, but this is the first time accreditation has been achieved across modalities. We are proud to be leading the way in breast imaging in Bermuda by being the island’s first Breast Imaging Center of Excellence.”

Dr Daniel Stovell, Chief of Radiology adds: “This is an important development for Bermuda, showing that we can provide a quality of service that only an elite group in the US reach. The accreditation included peer-review evaluations conducted in each breast imaging modality by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field. They determined that KEMH has achieved high practice standards in image quality, personnel qualifications, facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs. We are proud to earn this designation. It is a reflection of the high calibre of our team, the quality of our equipment and our ability to organize and maintain every patient’s diagnostic images and reports in a secure database that can be accessed by all the specialists attending the patient for timely and efficient review.”

Venetta Symonds, CEO of BHB, congratulated the Diagnostic Imaging team: “This designation is a testament to the hard work, professionalism and passion of my colleagues in the KEMH Breast Imaging Centre. As a service on a small island, it is vital that we test ourselves against international standards. Annual mammogram screenings can be daunting, and when follow-up diagnostics are required, women in Bermuda want the reassurance that they are getting the highest quality service. This means any required surgical or oncology treatments can be smoothly, effectively and quickly implemented. I want to thank the team, both on behalf of BHB and on behalf of women and their families in Bermuda, for their achievement.

This specialist diagnostic accreditation runs from June 2012 to June 2015. This specialist accreditation augments the BHB’s organizational accreditation with Accreditation Canada.

The ACR, headquartered in Reston, Va.,is a national organization serving more than 32,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs for focusing on the practice of medical imaging and radiation oncology, as well as the delivery of comprehensive health care services.

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