Assessment of radiation protection practices amongst radiographers and quality control of diagnostic radiology devices in the selected hospitals of Urmia city in Iran

Quality assurance program is a regulatory necessity in diagnostic imaging. An unsuccessful quality
assurance program can prompt low quality radiograms that can damage diagnosis, increase operating costs
and give to unnecessary radiation exposure to both patients and staff. The aim of the study was to perform of
the important features of QA tests and radiation safety factors in major medical X-ray installations in urmia,
iran. The quality assurance tests and radiation safety factors of X-ray diagnostic examination are measured and
compared with the international tolerance. The analysis of the rejected films showed an overall reject rate of
8.4% during the period of the study. KV accuracy is good at all KVp stations for five machine except one of the
examined machines gave accuracy of 6.04 % which is higher than the tolerance limit. Time accuracy is lower
than the tolerance limit. Reproducibility of radiation output was ranged from 0.1 to 2.5%, of time was ranged
from 0.01 to 3% and of high voltage was ranged from 0.1 to 2.70% which is lower than the tolerance limit. The
quality assurance program should generalize for all hospitals to ensure the quality of the x-ray machines under
services.