News

April 23, 2014

Wadley Regional Medical Center at Hope Earns ACR Accreditation

(Hope, AR) — Wadley Regional Medical Center at Hope has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in mammography as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR). Mammography is a specific type of imaging test that uses a low-dose x-ray system to examine breasts. A mammography exam, called a mammogram, is used to aid in the early detection and diagnosis of breast diseases in women.

The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting ACR Practice Guidelines and Technical Standards after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field. Image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs are assessed. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice with a comprehensive report they can use for continuous practice improvement.

“With our addition of digital mammography in January of this year, we are proud to offer women every possible advantage in early detection of breast cancer,” says Thomas Gilbert, president and CEO of Wadley Regional Medical Center at Hope. “This accreditation is a testament to the technicians who perform the mammograms and serves to assure patients and their physicians that they are receiving quality exams. This major investment in advanced technology gives the women in our community access to mammography which is the best way to detect breast cancer in its earliest, most treatable stage and may find tumors that are too small to feel during an exam.” The American Cancer Society recommends that women age 40 and older have a mammogram every year and continue to do so for as long as they are in good health.

The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 36,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs focusing on the practice of medical imaging and radiation oncology and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.