Meeting & Agendas

The minutes from the April 12, 2018 Advisory Meeting were reviewed and approved as submitted.

PACS Purchase – Maria Kelly introduced herself as a member of the PACS purchase committee and explained that the current system is unusable and does not connect to our modalities. Both the Radiology and Sonography programs have a use for the PACS system. PACS will be used to store images produced in the phantom labs on both the Eastview and Round Rock Campuses. The selection of the vendor was based more on Cardiac Ultrasound needs more so than radiology since they perform exams on live patients and need the ability to view dynamic video. The system is called Vasco PACS for internal use and Vasco Cloud for faculty to use off campus. Students will not have access off campus. The system is planned to go live November 11. We need to identify trainers. Film Processors – It was reported that film processing supplies have become hard to find. The decision was recently made to remove the film processing equipment from both the Eastview and Round Rock campuses. The department will utilize new technology by fall 2020. Radiology Program App – Angela Hadlock and Kate Patton Verdun demonstrated a new lab protocols application they have created that is an ongoing project. The app presents videos and text for patient communication, positioning, equipment handling, technique preferences and patient care with the same information available in still images as well. Each body part will have a video. The goal is to provide content that allows a student to understand learning outcomes more quickly and make content easily available to students anywhere on phones, tablets and other devices. Feedback from students who saw a demo was very positive. Megan Grambort, a current second year student, wrote an article on this lab protocol app that will soon be published in the ASRT quarterly periodical “The Scanner”. JRCERT Interim Report – JRCERT contacted Jennifer Rigsby on June 4, 2019 requesting clarifications and documentation to ensure we were in continual compliance on four Objectives. The department was given a deadline of July 5 to respond. The response was submitted to JRCERT on July 3. Upon review of the response, the JRCERT Board of Directors awarded continued accreditation for an 8 year period. Our next site visit is tentatively scheduled for the First Quarter of 2023. Graduates of 2018, 2019; Current Student Enrollment/ 5-Year Program Outcomes – Jennifer reviewed student statistics provided on a handout that included a program outcomes overview, credentialing exam pass rates and employment rates. 223 students have been admitted over the past 5 admission cycles with 186 graduates. The 5-year completion rate average is 83%. The 2018 rate was 90%. Withdrawals were for either grades or personal reasons. The 2019 rate is currently 86% with 6 failures. Of the 6 failures, 5 failed the positioning class, 1 for personal reasons and 1 ethical violation. Three students returned and are slated to graduate. The program currently has 88 students enrolled. Thirty eight recent graduates have taken and passed the ARRT exam, 2 are scheduled, 1 is eligible to take the exam in December and 1 student has taken the exam but results not available due to an ethical issue that’s expected to be resolved very soon. The 5-year employment rate average is 95% with the past 2 years (2017 and 2018) at 100%. Several members commented that our program outcomes are very good and Dean Recek congratulated the program on continued successes. CT Program Update – Maria Kelly, CT Program Director, reported on program statistics over the past 3 years when she has been directing the program. The 3-year average for ARRT registry is 75% with the notation that the numbers for advanced modality programs are considered “self-reported” since they are based on finding certifications in the ARRT database. These numbers are speculative since there is an option for technologists to “opt out” of the ARRT database. The CT program completion rate is also 75%. It was noted that some students drop the clinical portion of the program because they are offered employment in CT but they continue with the didactic. The majority of the students admitted to the program are recent radiology graduates. Job placement is 95% for those completing the program. Maria said that she is often asked we why don’t admit more people with clinical experience. The reason is that work schedules often present a conflict for technologists. However, there is always the option to be admitted as an “undeclared student” which is didactic instruction only taught online. Our enrollment, completion and registry rates are higher for new graduates. Maria next reported that ARRT changes are being enacted effective Jan 1 that limited the number of scans to 9 per day as opposed to the current unlimited number. 125 verifiable scans are required and this is not possible to achieve in 1 semester at 9 scans per day. A large portion of the CT Clinical instructors have reported that most students have difficulty identifying anatomy on images required to set scan parameters and are not ready for job entry after only 1 semester and that students need additional direct patient care experience. Discussion followed supporting these comments. Maria then presented proposed curriculum changes for a 2-semester CT certificate that include: • Increase in clinical hours for scanning and patient care experience by adding a second clinical course in spring semester • Increase contact hours in sectional anatomy and move instruction to earlier in the program • Increase contact hours in patient care and scanning protocols in CTMT 2336 Computed Tomography Equipment & Methodology by moving anatomy content to a separate course • Create CTMT 1291 Special Topics in Computed Tomography to cover instruction in identifying human anatomy on CT images and determine image quality parameters that effect to visualization of anatomy. • Move CTMT 2332 Principles of Computed Tomography to spring semester to lessen load on students in fall Students will be hirable in 2nd semester. Dean Recek asked for the number of scans being performed by current students. Maria explained that the scan does not count unless the procedure is completed by the student from start to finish and that toward the end of the semester students can achieve 15 completed scans per day. Program goal is to prepare students for the registry exam. Dean Recek asked how students would feel about an additional semester and its potential impact on enrollment. Student feedback has been that they feel they could use another semester to practice both scanning and patient care. Other CT programs in Texas have a second clinical semester. A motion was introduced to increase the CT Advanced Technical Certificate from 1 semester to 2 semesters as presented. Motion was seconded and approved. MRI Program Update – Teresa Garza, MRI Program Director, presented an overview of the 2-semester program with declared and undeclared options. Last year 13 students were admitted and 9 completed the program. Three withdrew for employment opportunities and 1 for personal reasons. Ten took the registry exam and 9 passed resulting in a 90% pass rate. Students have 2 years to take exam. Employment rate for this class is 75% with 9 out of 12 employed within 6 months. Currently have 12 students enrolled in the fall 2019 cohort with 10 declared students and 2 undeclared. No job offers have been extended to date but there is interest in hiring them. Next year we anticipate admitting 10 – 15 students, dependent upon clinical site availability. MRI currently utilizes traditional classroom instruction and will be evaluating a potential hybrid option for the future. CVI Program Update – Michelle Hamilton, CVI Program Director, reviewed the state of the program for the 2019 cohort. The department had not offered the program for several years due to not having faculty qualified to teach the content until Michelle came on board and expressed the desire to offer the program. We admitted 8 students in the 3-semester program for fall 2018, 2 declared and 6 undeclared. In the second semester, 4 students changed to the undeclared option due to gaining employment in Cath labs. The 3rd semester saw 2 students withdrawing. The program completed with 6 students, 1 declared and 5 undeclared. All 6 undeclared students gained employment at the conclusion of the program. Two students have attempted the ARRT exam and were unsuccessful. Scores for these students were 74 and 73 with a score of 75 required to pass. Image production deficiency was identified as the problem area for one of these students. Other students have reported that they plan to attempt the CI exam later this year or early next year. The program was not offered fall 2019 due to low interest. The curriculum is currently under review for revisions to increase interest in the field and the program. This includes adjusting the length of the program to 2 semesters and increasing clinic to 4 days per week to compensate for the reduction in program length and provide additional hands on experience. Michelle next announced that the department recently purchased a cardiac cath lab simulator which is a valuable instructional tool for students. Clinical affiliates’ feedback included the suggestion to increase anatomy instruction and supported the use of the cath lab simulator to improve skills and to modify the program to 2 semesters. There followed discussion of using more social media platforms, online instruction and networking opportunities for recruitment tools and to stimulate interest. We are able to admit a maximum of 10 students. Mammography Program Update The Mammography Advisory Committee Meeting minutes from the June 12, 2019 meeting were provided for the committee to review. The department continues to work on implementation of the program, however only 2 applications for an instructor have been received in response to the posted job. Once hired, the instruction would be responsible for formulating the program. The department will keep the committee updated the progress to offer this program. Committee members responded that an in-town, hands-on program is attractive to clinical sites.

Kristy Baker, Radiology Program Clinical Coordinator, and Jennifer Rigsby recently met with 2 representatives, Melanie Hail and Misheva McCarty, from the College of Health Care Professions because their students are showing up in our affiliated clinical sites. CHCP offers a B.S. in Radiologic Sciences Management and an A.A.S. in Radiologic Technology. They offer a bridge program for LMRT to AAS. CHCP is not JRCERT accredited and therefore not bound to JRCERT oversight. This allows them more flexibility with scheduling students (nights & weekends). CHCP stated in the aforementioned meeting that only 1 student is assigned at each clinical site but it’s been reported that 3 ACC students and 3 CHCP students were at a site. Too many students at a site create the issue of students being unable to complete required procedures. A scheduling coordination verbal agreement was reached between ACC & CHCP. CHCP will schedule students on Tuesdays & Thursdays this fall when ACC students are not at clinical. In the spring semester our students are scheduled to be in clinical 5 days per week. Kristy requested that the sites please keep us informed so we can schedule correctly. Fred Ramirez suggested that we look for additional sites because it seems that many of our students continue their education with CT or MRI and the community needs x-ray techs. Kristy explained that the program must follow a JRCERT formula on how many students can be assigned to a site. Kristy may need to get with clinical sites to update/adjust the number of students each site can accommodate. The College wants the program to increase enrollment but we need more clinical sites/spots to accommodate any additional students. Kristy requested sites to reach out to her if they were able to add more students. Kristy next reviewed potential new clinical sites that the program is exploring and asked committee members to provide a contact for Baylor, Scott & White Lakeway if they had one. In summary, the program currently has 53 clinical spots and is working on another 8 potential sites. The annual Clinical Instructor Workshop will be conducted in April 2020.

The 2019-2020 DMI-Radiography Degree Plan was reviewed. RADR 2213 Radiation Biology and Protection (1st yr) was moved from an 11-week summer semester to a 16-week fall semester to provide more instruction and improve scores in the class. RADR 2233 Advanced Medical Imaging was moved from 2nd year spring semester to 1st year summer semester. RADR 2217 Radiographic Pathology (2nd yr) was moved from the fall semester to the spring semester and will be taught online. Students have expressed mixed feelings about the change to online, saying that they miss the social learning aspect of the traditional classroom environment.

Assessment Plan - The 2018-2019 Program Assessment Plan was reviewed. Jennifer pointed out that all faculty members participated in developing the plan and that Benchmarks were increased and Action Plans were added. A motion was made to approve the 2018-2019 Program Assessment Plan as presented. The motion was seconded and approved. Employer Survey (Objectives 1.3, 4.4) – Kate explained that the Employer Survey has been sent every 2 years via Survey Monkey. The survey has 31 questions with some repetitions. The last survey resulted in only 8 responses. To make the survey easier to complete and improve response rates the department has made the following changes: • Reduced number of questions from 31 to 23 • Changed to a Google Form format • Send survey annually in October These changes will also allow the department to take more immediate action on any identified issues. The survey has traditionally been sent to department directors. The faculty received permission to also send it to lead technologists. Graduate Survey (Objective 1.4) Kate next reviewed processes and results for the Graduate Survey. This 46-question survey was sent using Survey Monkey to ACC email accounts every other year and has also historically resulted in low response rates (i.e. 15 out of 72). The following changes have been adopted for 2020: • Collect personal email address at program exit interviews • Reduced number of questions from 46 to 16 • Changed to Google Form format • Send survey annually in September

Jennifer reminded the committee that a Perkins Survey was recently emailed to them. ACC administration is requesting this information to ensure effective use of funds and we appreciate the committee’s input. Jennifer next introduced VR Radiology, a virtual medical coaching technology for positioning. The technology is not yet available in the United States but Jennifer and Angela participated in a video conference and saw a demo. They then brought the demo to a few faculty and students for input which was very positive. The technology includes a practice side and an assessment side to provide practice in addition to labs. Students will see a demo, answer questions, receive a requisition to proceed to a virtual exam room to position a patient and make a simulated exposure (no x-rays are used). An image is produced based on the student’s positioning and image quality is assessed. Students can build a portfolio if they so choose. The current cost is $550 per student and the program is researching funding options.

Jennifer expressed the department’s appreciation for the committee’s support. Meeting adjourned at 1:49 p.m.