General Personnel

900.12(a): Personnel. The following requirements apply to all personnel involved in any aspect of mammography, including the production, processing, and interpretation of mammograms and related quality assurance activities:

Question:

1. Are there any MQSA requirements for personnel performing any interventional mammographic procedure (e.g., needle localization, stereotactic biopsy, galactography)?
2. Can experience obtained in a foreign country count towards meeting the continuing experience requirement?
3. Can experience obtained in a Veterans Administration (VA) facility count towards meeting the continuing experience requirement?
4. Are there any MQSA qualifications related to the people providing general servicing of the mammography equipment?
5. Are in-service training programs acceptable under the final regulations?
6. At the time of the inspection, the sole interpreting physician, radiologic technologist, and/or medical physicist at a facility is found to not meet one of their requirements. Must the person and the facility immediately stop practicing mammography?
7. Can time spent directly supervising other personnel, or being directly supervised, count toward the continuing education requirement?
8. Can an interpreting physician position patients or perform mammographic examinations?
9. If the person providing direct supervision is found to be unqualified, how does that affect the status of the person being supervised?
10. If a facility fails to have proper documentation for a personnel requirement, will the facility be cited for failure of the inspection question, "Required personnel documents available?"
11. Do general supervisors of mammography technologists, medical physicists, or interpreting physicians have to meet any requirements under MQSA?
12. Under MQSA regulations must an interpreting physician be present during the performance of a “diagnostic” mammogram?