Here to Help:

ARRT's Guide to
Ethics in Imaging
 Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging

Thank you for joining us to learn more about ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging
and the important role our standard of ethics play in protecting and supporting
you and your patients.

Welcome.

I'm Dr Liana Watson, CEO of the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists.

And I'm honored to be serving you as the staff leader for ARRT.

I've been a registered technologist for over 35 years and I specialized in

sonography and mammography in my more than 20 year clinical career at a
regional hospital in Western Nebraska.

For the past 6 years, I've served as the coordinator for the American Board of
Imaging Informatics and as a senior program manager for Government Affairs at
ARRT.

Before I took on these roles, I spent 7 years at the American Society of Radiologic
Technologists, supporting their volunteers and assisting with their practice
standards.

In celebration of ARRT's 100th anniversary, we created an ARRT guide to ethics

and imaging training module.

We're offering all RTs one free continuing education credit when you complete
this session.

Our main message to you is that we are here to help you.

Page 1 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
This training module focuses on helping you better understand how the
principles of professional ethics connect to ARRT standards of ethics and vice
versa.

You will be introduced to ARRT's mission, our equation of excellence and our
standards of ethics.

And you'll learn how these components support registered technologists and
your patients.

You'll also hear more about the ethics expectations, some examples of the most
common rule violations of medical imaging and the appropriate actions to take
and the processes involved if an ethics review is necessary, and we'll also talk a
little about, about your responsibilities as a registered technologist.

The ARRT mission is to promote high standards of patient care by recognizing

qualified individuals in medical imaging, interventional procedures, and radiation
therapy.

And in support of this mission, we adopt and uphold standards for educational
preparation as you enter into the profession.

We adopt and uphold standards of professional behavior, consistent with the

level of responsibility required for professional practice as a medical imaging or
radiation therapy professional.

And we develop and administer examinations that assess the knowledge and
skills underlying the intelligent performance of the tasks typically required by our
profession in the discipline that you test in.

Next.

Let's consider the ARRT equation for excellence.

It really is the foundation as we strive for excellence.

Page 2 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
There are three components to the ARRT equation for excellence.

The first component is education.

Although education is the first of the three components of the ARRT Equation for
Excellence, it applies throughout an RT's career.

The second component, ethics.

The ARRT standards of ethics provides guidance on what it means to be a
qualified and to motivate and promote a culture of ethical behavior within the
profession.

It's also what we're here to learn more about today.

The third component is examination ARRT applies our education and ethics
requirements.

But it is really the technologists themselves who determine when to confront the
examination component of the equation for Excellence.

The first examination that an RT passes bestows the RT or register technologist

designation and then that's usually accompanied by the initials that indicates the
discipline of the exam that they completed.

So let's learn more about one of these important components.

The ARRT's Standards of Ethics from Kellie Reynolds ARRT's Vice President of
Compliance.

Thanks Liana.

Hi, I'm Kellie Reynolds VP of compliance at ARRT.

You may have wondered what is the purpose of ARRT standards of ethics?
Page 3 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
The standards of ethics aligns perfectly with a ARRT's mission. Becoming certified
and registered by ARRT means being recognized as a qualified individual who
meets the expectations for providing high standards of patient care. Ethics is just
one part of ARRT's equation for excellence.

Now, let's look at how the ARRT standards of ethics is structured.

Part A of the standards of ethics is the code of ethics which are termed
aspirational.

The code helps to define the RT you strive to become. The code helps to define as
a guide by which candidates and RTs may evaluate their professional conduct as
it relates to patients, health care consumers, employers, colleagues and other
members of the health care team.

Part B presents the rules of ethics.

There are 22 of them to be exact.

Unlike the aspirational code, the rules of ethics are mandatory standards of
minimally acceptable professional conduct.

Some of the rules cover acts of omission, others cover acts of commission and
we'll get more into the details of the rules later.

But the key thing to remember is that the ARRT rules of ethics are enforceable.

The rules can be found in their entirety in the standards of ethics on ARRT's
website.

The rules are organized in the following categories.

Rules one through three are fraud or deceptive practices.

Page 4 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
This is behavior such as fraud involving certification and registration, fraudulent
communications regarding credentials and fraudulent billing practices.

Rules four through six are the subversion rules.

This is related to examination or CQR subversion education requirement,

subversion or failure to cooperate with a ARRT investigations. Rules Seven
through nine involve unprofessional and unethical conduct .

Rules 10 through 12 are the scope of practice rules and this includes technical
incompetence, improper supervision and practice, improper delegation or
acceptance of a radiologic technology function. Rules 13 and 14 are fitness to
practice rules.

This includes actual or potential inability to practice with reasonable skill and
safety .

Rules 15 through 17 are improper management of patient records.

This includes false or deceptive entries on a patient record, failure to protect

confidential patient information or knowingly providing false information.

Rules 18 through 20 involve violations of state or federal law or regulatory rules.

Rules 21 and 22 involve the duty to report violations.

So next, we can talk about part C which is the administrative procedures that
relate to the ethics committee.

So these provide for the structure and operation of the Ethics Committee in
handling challenges raised under the rules of ethics.

This is similar to the due process in a legal system.

Page 5 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
However, ARRT is bound by these administrative procedures and not by bound
by the rules of civil procedure that you find in courts.

We will talk more about the administrative procedures in a bit.

But first, we're gonna look a little bit deeper into the code of ethics.

As previously mentioned, the ARRT Code of Ethics is an aspirational guide.

Its purpose is to help RTs maintain a high level of ethical conduct and to provide
for the protection, safety and comfort of patients.

The code looks into obtaining information for physicians to aid in the diagnosis
and treatment, minimizing radiation exposure, conducting oneself ethically
respecting privacy, continually improving knowledge and skills and refraining
from the use of illegal drugs and or legally controlled substances that impair
someone's ability to practice radiologic technology safely.

Both ARRT and ASRT, the American Society of Radiologic Technologists support
this code of ethics as an aspirational guide to professionalism in radiologic
technology.

To recap, the rules of ethics are mandatory standards.

They represent the minimally acceptable professional conduct for RTs and
candidates.

They demonstrate to the medical community and public that someone is

qualified to practice, promote the protection, safety and comfort of patients.

RTs and candidates must act consistently with the rules.

So let's talk more about ARRT's administrative procedures.

Page 6 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
The ethics committee is comprised of three members of ARRT's Board of
trustees.

There are a range of actions available to the committee including a decision to

take no action in many instances.

The vast majority of ethics violations are either cleared, meaning the violation did
not warrant a sanction or they result in a confidential private reprimand.

Additionally, no action is taken. Any time the ethics committee or staff determine
that no violation of ARRT's rules of ethics occurred.

Our intent is to help not to police the profession.

So let's talk about what to expect from an ethics review.

Ethics reviews are initiated in a variety of ways including self reporting, reports by
employers or third parties and sometimes even through media reports.

Our process can take anywhere from 45 days to well over a year depending on
the individual circumstances, the complexity of the matter and whether there's
court involvement.

When we receive a report, we acknowledge the report and we may ask the
individual to provide additional information.

Once all of the necessary information is provided, then a decision can be made.
Access ARRT's website and go to the ethics section and you'll find more
information on reporting ethics violations.

I want to emphasize that all ethics investigations are confidential.

This means the ARRT will not share the details of an ongoing ethics review with
third parties including family members, employers, coworkers without the
individual's consent.
Page 7 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Only summary suspensions are and final decisions that are not confidential are
published on ARRT's website and communicated to state licensing agencies.

It's important to note that the vast majority of RTs undergoing an ethics review
are certified and registered throughout the entire process.

This means they may continue working under ARRT's credentials.

Certification and registration status is uninterrupted while the issue is under

review.

The only exception to this is in summary suspension cases. In those cases,

certification, registration is temporarily suspended pending an expedited
hearing.

Candidates undergoing an ethics review are still able to sit for ARRT's exam.

However, ARRT will temporarily hold the scores pending the outcome of the
review.

Individuals can request a hearing within 30 days of the Ethics Committee issuing
a sanction.

Individuals requesting hearings can elect to submit testimony in writing or they

can appear in person or they can have a video conference or teleconference.
Appearing in person via teleconference or video conference allows individuals to
speak directly to the ethics committee about their unique circumstances.

RTs and candidates also have an opportunity to appeal any ethics committee
decision within 30 days of the decision.

Appeal's testimony, however, is submitted in writing.

Page 8 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
The most important takeaway here is that we are here to help. ARRT standards of
ethics is in place to support the profession and to ensure high standards of
patient care.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

You can reach out by calling 6516870048 or reach out via message center in your
online account.

Next, let's hear more from former ARRT trustee and former ethics committee
chair, Ann Obergfell about the ethical obligations impacting RTs.

My name is Ann Obergfell.

I'm the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Operations at Indiana
University, Fort Wayne and I was a, had the honor of being a member of the ARRT
board of trustees for 8 years and was a member of and chaired the Ethics
Committee for several years while I was on the board. Today, I want to talk with
you a little bit about common issues that we found from technologists when we
were doing ethics reviews and we'll take a look at some of those rules that were
most common violations so that you can get an understanding of what an ethics
review is really about and what kinds of things we're looking for.

As Kellie discussed in the standards of ethics, there are three portions to the
ethics.

The structure of the standard of ethics first is the code of ethics, which as she
discussed were aspirational.

Those are those, those things that we should aspire to as technologists to make
sure that we are all providing the best quality care for our patients, whether
we're in diagnostic or therapeutic imaging services.

The part B is the section that we will really be looking at and Kellie laid out in her
presentation, the different sections of those rules and they're divided out so that
Page 9 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
they sort of make sense for the reader to understand where they're at and we'll
be looking at some of those.

And then part C is really the administrative process which is utilized by the
registry when doing ethics reviews. First question, you might ask yourself why an
ethics review?

An ethics review is designed to promote the high standards of patient care by

recognizing qualified individuals.

When we're looking at registered technologists, we not only want to make sure
that they're clinically competent and prepared to do what they're doing, but we
also wanna make sure that they are meeting those ethical standards expected by
the profession.

So as a component of the ARRT's Equation of Excellence that Liana discussed,

there are three areas that we look at.

One is education, second is ethics and third is the examination and we're going
to be looking at some of those ethical pieces today from the equation of
Excellence.

And it's most importantly, designed to motivate and promote ethical behavior
within the profession.

So why an ethics review?

When we look at ethics reviews, there are approximately 2000 cases reviewed
every year, which sounds like a lot.

But when we're looking at the number of, of registered and certified
technologists, it's really not a huge amount.

Each case that we look at is handled independently.

Page 10 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
So we're not looking at all of them in a group, we're looking at each case based
on those particular facts that are appropriate and determined through an
investigation for that individual.

The facts are that they look at are those that are reported or that they find during
the investigation.

So we're not bringing in all kinds of other things.

We're really just looking at what happened.

What did we learn as we studied this situation?

And how are we gonna move forward? When looking at that, we also analyze
things that are both aggravating, which means that they cause a bigger problem
potentially for an individual or mitigating, which are those kinds of things which
make it a little bit less like less likely to be a big problem for that individual that
we're reviewing.

So we would look at those as we go through those, these sort of scenarios and

issues that we're seeing as members of ethics committee.

So some of the most common rule violations fall under fitness to practice and
violations of state and federal law, those in, in most cases are dealing with
substance abuse.

So rule 13 talks about actual or potential inability to practice and that includes
inability to practice based on some kind of substance abuse or situation where
you're not able to care appropriately for patients.

Rule 18 is violating a state or federal narcotics or controlled substance law, which

deals with a person who has really gone beyond what would be a, some kind of
an addiction or some kind of a problem with inability to practice, and then of
course, there are convictions, criminal proceedings or military courts martial,
which we look at for individuals when we're doing that full investigation.
Page 11 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
So I wanna talk a little bit about alcohol, which seems to be one of the larger
problems that we're dealing with.

And one of the scenarios that we find are people who are caught operating under
the influence.

Now, you may see that called different things in different states.

It might be driving under the influence operating while intoxicated, different

states have different ways of looking at that.

But when we do the investigation and the review, we're looking at the state
where the individual resides and where they work.

And so, we look at driving under the influence according to the state laws.

So for example, an individual might have been pulled over for driving under the
influence.

It could be their first offense.

They immediately contact the registry, which is required.

One of the rule of the requirements is that if you are have some ethics issue, you
report it within 30 days, the person reports it within 30 days.

This is usually not a problem if somebody is taking a look at it from an ethics

review standpoint.
We look at that.

It's a first offense.

The person reported as they were supposed to do, those are mitigating factors.

Page 12 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Those are things that we're going to take a look at.

On the other hand, we may see a case where a person is pulled over for the
same offense.

But they are not, they do not report themselves.

They're perhaps reported by a coworker because the coworker knows about the
offense or they read about it in the paper or something happened.

So they're, they get reported by somebody else. When they, this review starts,
they might find that this person actually had multiple incidents.

So this was not the first offense that's an aggravating circumstance.

So they had not, they didn't report themselves as they were supposed to, but
they also had multiple violations of this law in their state.

That is something that the registry is going to want to look at further to make
sure that this person isn't possibly impaired or having a problem with practice
that extends beyond just operating a motor vehicle.

So those are some of the things that we look at.

So you can see that distinction between the aggravating and the mitigating
circumstances.

Another area is dealing with marijuana, which we're seeing in some cases as it
becomes legal in more and more states.

With, there may be a situation where somebody is fine to, to have marijuana in
the system after and they have a positive drug test, but it's random.

Page 13 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
So the question is, were they impaired to, they report it to the ARRT, the question
is gonna be asked, were they, was there a potential impairment at work or was it
somebody who was using it legally?

They come to work.

There's no problem.

They work without any problem.

So those are the things that, that ethics review is going to take a look at on
another case might be that they are drug tested because there's a suspicion of
impairment.

So this might be somebody who's come into work, they're behaving differently
than they ordinarily behave, perhaps falling asleep at work, unable to respond or,
or care for patients in an appropriate way.

It's somehow work related.

And so when we look at that they look at, did they have contact with patients on
that particular day?

So that is something that they're gonna look at, when reviewing a case.

So this might be reported by the employer, might report to the registry that this
person has a positive drug test at work, based on suspicion or it might be that
the person contacts and indicates that.

So it's something that the registry, the Ethics Committee is going to take a look at
as to what is the whole scenario with that individual.

The third area is under narcotics.

Page 14 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
So an example may be an individual who was injured in an automobile accident
or a sporting activity or something like that and they were prescribed a particular
narcotic for pain, the person that then could potentially escalate as we see with
addiction where an individual continues to take those what were initially
prescribed narcotics and has now taken it to a different level.

So the next case might be that they misused the medication.

So they're using it more than is prescribed or they are doing something to, to
perhaps get it from other individuals.

They know somebody else who's taking a painkiller of some kind.

And so they may be getting them from somebody else.

They may be drug seeking in hospitals or physicians offices trying to get more of
them, they look at that this is part of that addictive process.

It's just so it's misuse then of the prescribed medication, which also could be a
violation, especially of of law, if they're getting those from somebody else.

So then the third area which is a huge problem potentially is a diversion of

medication.

Many technologists have access to things in the clinical setting and so they may
in, in some way attempt to divert those drugs taking them from a, a tray, perhaps
in an interventional lab or somewhere where they might be available somehow
accessing a pixes or some other medication administration mechanism.

So it's really, it's really important on those ethics reviews that we're looking at
what is happening with that.

And so those are generally reported from an employer and it is something that
the Ethics Committee takes very seriously because this person, if they are

Page 15 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
impaired in some way, they are working with patients and that could potentially
harm them.

The other important piece of this though is is if we have a, a certified and

registered technologist who is actually has some addiction problem, we want to
try and help them.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is is help an individual who is in this
addictive cycle.

And so what we can do is provide some kind of a sanction that requires them to
drug test or do something so that we can make sure that they're staying and
sometimes require them to get into a some kind of a program.

So, it actually could help the technologist because we're not here to punish
people.

We're here to try and help them and the way to help them is to get them out of
that addiction if possible.

And so it's one of the things that we really try and do, it's not, but we also need to
protect patients.

So we have to look at what is in the best interest of the patients as well as in what
is in the best interest of this individual and hopefully helping them so that they
can get on with their life in a productive way and not need the addictive
substance.

So some other common rule violations that we see beyond those most common
ones are improper management of patient records.

So, one of those things would be that we sometimes see are things like
misadministration of a dosage in a radiation therapy procedure.

And so then somebody doesn't want anybody to know that that happened.
Page 16 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
So they might falsify a record, not indicating how much was actually administered
which is harmful to a patient because every we all know that that's a critical
piece, making sure that the appropriate radiation dose is given.

We also in medical imaging may perhaps have an issue with an improper dosage
of some kind of contrast media, some other situation that is going on and the
individuals falsify the records and attempt to cover up an error.

That is one of the things that is investigated in an ethics review if it gets reported.

We look at what were the circumstances surrounding that situation?

Why did the individual feel like they needed to alter a record or falsify a record to
understand what exactly was going on there?

And so, again, the goal is to protect the patient.

And so we wanna make sure that someone is not trying to cover for themselves
and harming patients in the meantime.
Another instance might be where there's an attempt to delete a record to cover
up an error.

This could occur with our systems now where somebody deletes images that
they produced an attempt to cover something up.

Fortunately what, unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it,

those images are there, they never go away, they're there in the background and
sometimes they find them.

And so hospitals, health care organizations can find those images and they try
and then understand what happened.

Those might be reported to the registry.

Page 17 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
The registry review looks at what were the circumstances surrounding that?

Why was that image deleted?

Why was that record part of that record deleted?

What was the reason for that when trying to understand that violation of one of
the ethical rules?

And another thing is to submit false or inaccurate information into a patient

record.

Again, generally done to try and cover up some kind of error that occurred or in
some case, could be somebody trying to provide some kind of mischief with
someone.

And so it's really, really important that we understand that as registered

technologist, we should only be putting accurate and truthful information into
records.

If we've made an error, we need to make sure that we are reporting those
appropriately so that they can be, if there is anything that needs to be done, we
can mitigate that problem.

And that's one of those things is if you make an error, you get it to the proper
people.

The problem is mitigated.

That is gonna be something that an ethics review is going to look at. The attempt
to cover up is really the problem people make errors, but attempting to cover
that error up is where they can get into trouble with an ethics review.

Another area that we sometimes see is a failure to protect confidential patient

information.
Page 18 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
As we all know, under HIPAA and other guidelines, patient information is
confidential always should be when we look at the code of ethics, it talks about
maintaining confidentiality of patient information.

But one of the things that can happen because of electronic health records.

Sometimes a person might log in and leave their login open and so they fail to log
out.

Most systems have the they will, they will shut down, but sometimes they don't,
they stay open for a little while and someone else can access records through
that because they left it open.

So that is actually a violation.

If you leave that open, you are actually opening up patient information to
anybody who comes along and accesses on that station.

So it's really important and it's something that we look at when that gets
reported that somebody accessed a person might say, well, it wasn't me.

I didn't do it, so well.

Did you leave the a portal open so that somebody else could follow you in?

That is a violation in of itself because you opened that access for another person.

Another interesting problem is accessing or allowing access to records.

This may be when, you know that there's a friend of yours who has come into the
hospital and you want to check on their care and what's happening with them,
their diagnosis.

And so you access that patient's record.

Page 19 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
That is an illegal act because you do not have a reason to access that person's
records.

And so that is one of those things that the, that if the organization might have to
do a review for HIPAA , a security check and they might find that individuals
accessed a record in, inappropriately.

And so that would then end up with an ethics ethics review.

We would, they would contact the registry and say this, this is what happened.

We've let this person go, we've suspended them, we've done something, we want
the registry to know.

And so they may then, the registry might do that review and try to understand
what exactly happened with that and why that record was accessed.

Another thing is just allowing somebody else to access.

Somebody comes up to you and says, hey, can, can you log in so I can see my
sister's record?
Can you log in so I can see my mom's record?

Can you log in so I can see my friend's records? And you open up the portal so
somebody can come in.

So those are situations where we look at that from an ethics standpoint why was
that done?

You have breached somebody's confidence by allowing that to happen and failing
to protect confidential patient information, which is one of those important rules
that we follow as technologists.

Page 20 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
The another area that we look at when dealing with some of the rules of ethics
are fraud or deceptive practices related to credentials.

So we all carry our RTs in our area of that we've taken the exam in or we have a
credential in.

And the question is, is how do we then deal with those as we move on in our
practice.

So some, one of the areas where this might happen is continuing education
violations.

So an individual may submit altered continuing education reports.

This could be, claiming that they attended certain continuing a meetings that
they never attended.

It could be that they've falsified a certificate of someone else and put their name
on it or their number on it to show that they attended a session where they
perhaps didn't.

So those are some kinds of things that somebody might do to maintain that
credential and they're violating the rules by doing that.

You, you report what you've actually attended, what you've actually participated
in.

If it's a directed reading, did you actually read it or did you get those answers
from somebody else?

What did you do?

And another area might be falsifying clinical experience or competency

requirements.

Page 21 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
As we know, as we get additional credentials, there are certain competency
requirements, clinical experiences that we are supposed to achieve, were those
actually acquired or did somebody falsify the documentation in an attempt to
gain a credential without actually completing them.

So sometimes we'll know that when they start looking at somebody's

competencies and it doesn't make sense of what happened to what they're,
we're looking at their record and they did more in any one day than they possibly
could have or something else that might indicate that they have somehow
falsified those competency requirements.

So the investigation would go into trying to understand what exactly happened,

what was reported and was it accurate?

Did they actually meet those requirements?

A third area is assisting others in providing false inaccurate or altered

information related to continuing education.

So, did you actually assist others?

I have a friend who didn't get their continuing education done and so I provided
information for them so that they could submit it so that they wouldn't be put on
probation.

Then both of us have a problem because I've now assisted that person and that
person has submitted false information.

So we both have a violation because we had done that.

So it's really important to understand that you're not helping your colleague by
doing that, and from an ethics review standpoint, if I had done that I had violated
one of the rules by assisting others to provide false or inaccurate information for
their record of continuing education.

Page 22 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Some fraud involving credentials might include employing fraud or deceit in
procuring, maintaining or renewing ARRT certification.

And that could be they renewed with providing false information for their
continuing education.

They provided false information for some other situation on a perhaps an ethics
question, something that they had done.

So they're, they're providing information to renew their ARRT certificate,

certification when it's not really accurate.

That is something that they're going to look at involving your credentials because
those are yours alone and you have obligations to make sure that you're doing
that.

So the ethics review is going to look at what did you submit when you went to
obtain or renew your ARRT?

Providing false information regarding credentials to seek or maintain

employment in the field of radiologic technology.

This could come when someone has allowed their, registry to lapse but they seek
employment somewhere and they indicate that they are still certified and
registered by the ARRT.

We will see that from time to time and there's an ethics review of that because
once you have done that, then you're still under those standards even if you have
lapsed.

And so this person has, has lied to a future a prospective employer about the fact
that they still have their credential.

They may lie about the fact that they have a state license, perhaps their state
license was revoked or they never had a state license.
Page 23 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Something may have occurred that they haven't done that.

But on the application for employment, they might include the fact that they have
a state license and when the prospective employer starts looking at that and they
realize that that's not accurate, they may contact the registry and let them know
that that's an issue.

So, that providing that information to the state, this those two things are
separate and everybody needs to understand that, that there are state rules.

If you have a state license or certification, situation where you're employed, you
must follow those state rules, but those are very different than the registry's
rules.

So you need to make sure that you are abiding by both and making sure that if
an ethics review comes up, that you understand that just telling your state about
something is not telling the registry about something and vice versa.

So it's very important that you understand those distinctions but providing false
information about either of those about getting your registry credential or getting
your state permit or license, falsifying any information.

I graduated from a program.

I did this, I I'm certified and registered by the ARRT and they find out you're not,
that's gonna be a problem and then altering any document issued by the ARRT or
by any state or federal agency.

This occurs every once in a while when somebody would falsify a registry card.

And, and as you know, now we're not using the card anymore that any person
can be verified on the ARRT website.

Page 24 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
But you would see somebody would falsify on a card that they were actually
credentialed or that they actually had this in an attempt to obtain employment
and attempt to obtain a license in a state providing that kind of false information
or providing state license information, perhaps you have a certificate from the
state or some other document from the state and that is altered in an attempt to
gain employment.

So those are some of the issues that we look at from review of when somebody is
falsifying credentials involving the either the registry or a state license.

So, in looking at all of the things that we just talked about, there are a couple of
areas that are most often cited by an individual for an individual once the review
is happening.
The first is engaging in unprofessional conduct.

So that is a departure from our failure to conform to governmental rules or to

the minimal practices of acceptable and prevailing radiologic technology practice.

Any practice that may create unnecessary danger to a patient's life, health or
safety.

Any of the things that we are we've talked about, so it could be substance abuse.

It could be falsifying a record, any of those kinds of things could potentially harm
a patient.

So that is gonna be classified as unprofessional conduct.

So a person who is receives an ethics review and we're looking at it, they may
have more than, and most likely will have more than one rule that's been
violated.

So you may see the substance abuse rule violation, but you will also see this rule
seven engaging in unprofessional conduct because those things are tied if you
are doing one thing you're going to do another.
Page 25 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
So, this is a very often cited rule for individuals who come up for review.

Another is rule 9 is engaging in unethical conduct, which is conduct likely to

deceive, defraud or harm the public a willful or careless, disregard for the health,
welfare and safety of a patient.

This rule is going to be cited if somebody is falsifying those records, if they are
violating the confidentiality of a patient record, So that, that piece of that is going
to be, not only did you violate the rule, potentially with the falsified document or
the altered document or the deleted document, but you also engaged in
unethical conduct by doing that.

So it could be a couple of rules that the Ethics Committee is going to take a look
at in that.

So, those are the two commonly cited rules for individuals who are up for review,
one is unprofessional conduct and the other is unethical conduct.

So, in conclusion, when we're looking at this, we want certified and registered
technologist to practice in a safe legal and ethical way.

And that's, and it is designed to protect the public as well as the technologists
who are involved.

So, one of the things that is a clear responsibility of any of us is that we need to
read and understand the ARRT standards of ethics. Every year when we renew,
there's an area where we sign that says we agree to follow and abide by the
standards of ethics that includes the code of ethics and the rules of ethics.

I would encourage all of you to every year when you're doing that, take a minute
and review the rules again.

Page 26 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Review the code of ethics that aspirational piece of our practice, review those
rules and understand those enforceable rules so that you make sure you don't
have a, I didn't know that was a rule, sort of a thing.

So make sure that you're doing that because every year you sign to say that
you're going to abide by them.

So it's really important.

You need to, if you have any potential violation, driving under the influence,
something happened at work, whatever you are supposed to report that a
potential violation within 30 days of the occurrence, don't delay on that.

It's gonna be in your best interest to report it right away so that those people in
the ethics office can help you figure out what needs to happen next and they are,
that's what they're there for is to help you understand.

So please make sure that you're doing that.

Understand that your state licensure is going to be different than your ARRT.

So you need to understand both as a, a licensed professional in a state or a

certified and registered person by the registry, you have those obligations and
they are separate, even though they're aligned under your practice, they are
going to be separate situations.

So you need to make sure that if you reported something to the state or
something happened with the state that you also contact the registry, it's, it's
gonna be very important because a lot of times the state and the registry, they
may talk to each other, but they may not talk to each other under the
circumstance.

So it's gonna be very important that you do that.

And the most important thing is to call the registry, call ARRT.

Page 27 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.
If you have any questions or if you need guidance, they're there to help you.

This process, the ethics review, is not designed to penalize people.

It's designed to try and help people and trying to make sure that we're all
practicing ethically.

So please do not be afraid to call them.

Kellie and her staff are always available and it's something really important for
you to do.

And another thing is to remember that whenever using the ARRT Standards of
Ethics for review, all references should be made to the actual document rather
than any condensed versions.

And you can find that document at arrt.org.

If you just Google Standards of Ethics ARRT, it will come up and you'll be able to
find them and I would encourage you to read them today and as I said, every
year, as you renew. Thank you very much and I think I kick it back to Liana now.

Thank you Ann and thank all of you for taking time today to learn more about
ethics and imaging.

Again, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact ARRT at
6516870048 or reach out through the message center in your online ARRT
account.

We are here to answer any questions you have or to help you at any time. Again,
thank you for completing this session and we hope you have a great day.

Page 28 of 28

Here to Help: ARRT's Guide to Ethics in Imaging ©ASRT 2023. All Rights Reserved.