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I-97-105 August 14, 1997
FOR ALLEGED VIOLATIONS AT GRAND VIEW HOSPITAL
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has cited Grand View Hospital in Sellersville, Pa., for three alleged violations of NRC requirements. The staff has proposed a $4,400 fine.
The alleged violations were found during an NRC inspection at the facility in June to look into the events surrounding a contaminated package that was sent back to a nuclear pharmacy on June 3. Based on information gathered during that inspection and a predecisional enforcement conference held in the Regional Office on July 17, the NRC staff has determined there were three apparent violations: failure to ensure that external removable contamination on the package was within regulatory limits, failure to conduct daily radiation level surveys and weekly removable contamination level surveys of the nuclear medicine "hot lab" floor, and the failure of the radiation safety officer to ensure that radiation safety activities were being performed in accordance with approved procedures and regulatory requirements.
In a letter to the hospital, NRC Region I Administrator Hubert J. Miller said, "The failure of your staff to ensure that an adequate survey was performed prior to transporting the package to Syncor (the nuclear pharmacy), as well as the failure of the RSO (radiation safety officer) to adequately oversee the radiation program, represents a very significant regulatory concern because such failures have the potential to cause unnecessary exposure to members of your staff, the staff at the receiving facility, and members of the public while the package in transport."
Normally, he said, such violations would be classified in the aggregate as a severity level I problem, the most severe rating in the four-level NRC enforcement policy. However, given the actual safety consequences that resulted, the NRC has determined that these violations are best classified as a severity level II problem.
Mr. Miller also noted that Grand View Hospital's corrective actions were prompt and comprehensive. Those actions include retraining of technologists, commitments that there will be increased involvement by the radiation safety officer, and plans to survey the hospital "hot lab" and all surfaces of transport cases for radioactive contamination.
The hospital has 30 days either to pay the proposed fine or to request in writing that all or part of the penalty be withdrawn.
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