Technical Assistance Request, Regarding Mediq Imaging, Inc., Providing Service to a Private Practice (Non-licensee) Located within a Hospital
HPPOS-320 PDR-9307060045
Title: Technical Assistance Request, Regarding Mediq
Imaging, Inc., Providing Service to a Private Practice
(Non-licensee) Located within a Hospital
See the memorandum from J. E. Glenn to R. E. Bellamy dated
January 25, 1993. This NMSS memo responds to a technical
assistance request (TAR) from Region I, dated July 16,
1992, regarding Mediq Imaging Associates, Inc., (MEDIQ)
providing service to a private practice (non-licensee)
located within a hospital.
MEDIQ rents space in the cardiology section of Atlanticare
Medical Center in Lynn, Massachusetts. It is in this
rented space that MEDIQ proposed the operation of a mobile
nuclear cardiology laboratory, with the full knowledge of
the Atlanticare administration. There will be no formal
relationship between the established nuclear medicine
program in the hospital and the MEDIQ mobile operation, and
only ambulatory outpatients will be seen in the MEDIQ
nuclear cardiology clinic; none of these patients would be
expected to be returning to a hospital bed following a
nuclear procedure. This program is basically a
continuation of the long-standing mobile clinic that MEDIQ
operated at Union Hospital in Lynn, an institution which is
now closed due to a merger with the Atlanticare facility.
The continuing need for cardiac nuclear medicine in this
community is the basis for this request. That need is even
more profound with the closure of Union Hospital, since the
cardiologists involved have relocated to the Atlanticare
Medical Center, the only remaining hospital in Lynn.
The NMSS responses to the two issues raised in the TAR are
as follows:
1. Clarify whether a mobile licensee can provide
service to a private practice non-licensee) located within
a hospital (institution).
The mobile licensee cannot provide a service to a private
practice non-licensee) located within a licensed hospital
(institution).
2. Is the hospital required to assume responsibility
as the client as specified in 10 CFR 35.29 (c)?
According to the Statements of Consideration regarding 10
CFR 35.29: "When an NRC licensed hospital exercises its
authority to invite a mobile nuclear medicine service to
provide medical service, the NRC will deal with this as
though the licensee has delegated tasks to another
licensee. The NRC licensed hospital, not the mobile
nuclear medicine service, will normally be held responsible
for items of non-compliance that occur at the hospital."
Therefore, since the hospital would need to invite MEDIQ to
perform medical services, the hospital will be required to
assume responsibility as the client.
The intent of 10 CFR 35.12 (a) and 10 CFR 35.29 (c) are to
prevent confusion or conflicting requirements regarding
control of access to byproduct materials. MEDIQ has not
presented any explanation as to why the hospital cannot
assume this responsibility nor how MEDIQ could assure
adequate control of byproduct material given that there
"will be no formal relationship between the established
nuclear medicine program in the hospital and the MEDIQ
operation."
Regulatory references: 10 CFR 35.12, 10 CFR 35.29
Subject codes: 11.3
Applicability: Byproduct Material