Hospital system offers dedicated CT training path to address staffing issues
Giving students a pathway to becoming certified in computed tomography helped one hospital system solve its radiology staffing woes.
University of Maryland Shore Regional Health operates 12 hospitals and numerous outpatient centers throughout the state. Recently, the system was struggling to keep some of its CT departments fully staffed, causing delays in care and burdensome workloads for employees.
“There are no CT programs offered by community colleges on the shore, so it made sense to create our own training program to help us meet our staffing needs,” Margo Abbas, radiology manager, told local news outlet The Democrat Star. “CT techs are vital members of our team."
To address the issue, leaders within Shore’s imaging services came up with the idea to provide a clear pathway to CT certification. The team collaborated with local schools, including the Community College of Baltimore County, Johns Hopkins Schools of Medical Imaging and WOR-WIC Community College, to develop a training program that would streamline techs' certification process. They also recruited volunteer registered CT techs within the hospital system to help train the students for one month during the program.
To complete the program, interested rad techs must partake in 480 hours of training over a period of 12 weeks. Enrollees also must agree to continue their employment with Shore after finishing the program and becoming a registered CT tech through the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists.
So far, the program has helped fill 14 CT tech vacancies throughout the organization’s locations.
“We are very proud of this team effort to achieve 100% staffing,” added Penny Olivi, director of imaging services at Shore Regional. “Creativity and hard work helped us create and sustain a structured, financially supported, on-the-job training program for our radiology technologists to earn an advanced certification as CT technologists.”
State licensure requirements and a lack of dedicated training programs both contribute to the shortage of qualified techs, not just in Maryland but numerous other states. However, recent data from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists indicate that the number of students enrolling in rad tech programs rose by around 10% over the past year. While this will not address the shortage of CT techs specifically, it does mean there will be more eligible students who could cross train and eventually become registered in the modality.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.