Department Of Veterans Affairs
VA Handbook 7610 (275)
Washington, D.C. 20402
June 2006
Imaging is approved by VACO Radiology Service based upon Veterans Health
Administration (VHA) anticipated medical needs.
D. MRI Services, as used in these criteria, includes the diagnostic imaging modality of
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
E. Room capacity per year should be based on:
Operating days per year x Hours of operation per day
= Number of
Minutes per procedure / 60 minutes
annual procedures
1. The general planning model for VA facilities assumes 250 Operating Days per
Year and 8 Hours of Operation per Day. Room capacity will fluctuate as hours of
operation are modified, i.e., additional capacity may be generated by extending
the daily hours of operation within the same physical setting.
2. Base Room Efficiency Factor is 80%.
a. Modalities with routine, scheduled procedures and backup equipment (more
than one piece of the same type of equipment in the department) should plan
for an efficiency factor of 85%.
Example: Assume a modality room that averages 30 minute per procedure /
suite stop:
250 operating days per year x 8 hours of operation per day
= 4,000 annual
30 minutes per procedure / 60 minutes
procedures
A maximum capacity of 4,000 procedures/suite stops per year, assuming
100% utilization. However, 100% utilization is not realistic to achieve, thus, it
is not an accurate design standard. Apply Room Efficiency Factor:
4,000 x 80% = 3,200 annual procedures.
TABLE 1: WORKLOAD PARAMETER CALCULATION
AVERAGE
ANNUAL
MINIMUM
LENGTH OF
PROCEDURES
WORKLOAD TO
PROCEDURE
PER ROOM
GENERATE ONE
PROCEDURE
(minutes)
(rounded)
ROOM
MRI Scanning Room
30
3,200
960
The number of annual procedures per room will be used as a criteria
parameter to calculate the number of procedure rooms in the Space Criteria
section of this document. The minimum workload to generate one room is
30% of the calculated annual procedures per room.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Chapter 275): Page 4 of 14
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