PENNSYLVANIA Report praises mammography facilities inspections

The state's auditor general said shortcomings were relatively few.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Problems turned up in 28 percent of the state's inspections of certified mammography facilities, according to a report issued Thursday by the auditor general's office that praised how the inspections are conducted.
"Most important, [federal regulators] found no violations that did compromise mammography quality to the point where ... women and their physicians had to be notified," the report stated.
Auditor General Robert P. Casey Jr., who released it, said shortcomings identified in the report were relatively few.
"In all the horror and the darkness of that diagnosis for a woman and her family, we hope this report provides some measure of comfort and even a little bit of light in the darkness," he said.
Mammograms are used to detect breast cancer, which kills 2,200 women a year in Pennsylvania. More than 10,000 cases are diagnosed in the state annually.
Conclusion
The review of more than 1,000 inspections conducted by the Department of Environmental Protection over a recent 30-month period concluded the agency does an adequate job of checking up on the 406 certified mammography facilities in Pennsylvania.
"You have a great job done by the [DEP] in the 30 months that we looked at, plus a lot of facilities doing a good job, because there are virtually no problems," Casey said.
The DEP turns over violations it finds for enforcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under the federal Mammography Quality Standards Act.
The federal law requires that clinics use the least amount of radiation necessary to produce quality images.
"They undergo a really intense monitoring process which allows them to operate, but they're monitored in the most stringent way possible," Casey said. "You can't get any tougher than this FDA monitoring."
The performance audit was the state's first independent assessment of how the DEP tests equipment, reviews records and verifies qualifications of the physicians, technicians and physicists who perform mammography tests.
Violations
Among the most serious violations was failing to properly operate or maintain film processors, considered an important element of obtaining accurate images that aid diagnosis.
Three facilities did not give women the results of their tests in easy-to-understand, nontechnical language.
And a Philadelphia clinic didn't send the test results to the women's physicians within the required 30-day time period and let unqualified physicians interpret the mammograms, according to the audit.
The auditor general's report encouraged the DEP to be more active in helping the FDA close facilities that perform poorly and said the state agency could improve public access to inspection data and provide better information about the inspection process.