Above, CHMC ultrasound staff Micheline Brouillette, Jessica McGuire, Amber Bailey, Megan Myers and Coleen LaMere.

OGDENSBURG -- The American College of Radiology recently gave Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center three-year breast ultrasound accreditation.

Ultrasound is a medical imaging procedure that uses high-frequency soundwaves to show internal body parts.

“The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety,” CHMC Community Outreach Coordinator Michele Catlin said in a news release. “It is awarded only to facilities meeting ACR Practice Parameters and Technical Standards after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field.”

“When you see our gold seals of accreditation prominently displayed in our department, you can be sure that you are in a facility that meets the ACR standards for imaging quality and safety,” said Julie Bush, interim director of radiology at Claxton-Hepburn.

The assessors looked at image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs.

The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Accreditation, which provides a comprehensive report, CHMC said.

The ACR was founded in 1924 and serves more than 37,000 diagnostic and interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists, CHMC said.