MoSRT News and Events

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News, News and More News!

September 23, 2018

Legislative update

July 21, 2018

Fellow medical imaging professionals,

It is my pleasure to continue our work for our drive for educationally prepared and clinically competent individuals providing quality imaging in Missouri. Although we fell short this past legislative session, MoSRT is excited to begin the work again.

During the past session, on behalf of MoSRT I went by the Capitol to thank our bill sponsors. I must admit, I was a bit discouraged since we were literally so very close to getting our bill through to the Governor for signature. As I am sure you are aware, there were many distractions during this past legislative session. Plus, we had the CRNA group come out in opposition with only two weeks left in the session. It did seem the stars were not aligned for us as the session closed. As I went into our Senate sponsor and House sponsors offices, they were the ones who encouraged me! Our Senate sponsor made the statement I was not sure I would hear; “when we introduce the bills next session…”!! I was absolutely thrilled to hear they both are moving forward to again present this valuable legislation. Both the legislators were very complimentary of our organization, our lobbyist, and you our constituents. They feel we have worked out many of the issues before session began as well as our continued efforts to work with all organizations during the session. As our House sponsor said, ‘unless we have someone come out of the woodwork that we are not aware of, this bill should fly through the legislation’.

Although we technically will begin at the drawing board, I feel we are in a great position to begin our fight anew. I was able to speak with ARRT while at the ASRT conference and they continue to be very supportive of our efforts. I have not been given the official word yet that they will continue support of our lobbyist, but I do feel very good at the possibility of their sponsoring our lobbyist for another legislative session.

Watch our website, mosrt.org for updates. If you are on Facebook, please follow the MoSRT Facebook page, Information will be posted there as well.

So, get your dancing shoes on; the legislative session will begin January 2019, but the work of the next session has already begun. During my wrap up with ARRT, they jokingly asked “do we want to continue with another session of punishment?” My response? ABSOLUTELY!! MoSRT will continue our work on behalf of Missouri patients to assure them of quality Radiology procedures regardless of where you are in Missouri. This fight is worth every effort we need to take, after all it is our patients we are serving by our care as well as our legislative awareness. If we do not stand up for our patients, who will?

Respectfully,

Diane Hutton BA, RT(R) ARRT
Missouri Society of Radiologic Technologists
Legislative Activities Chair
diane.hutton@mosrt.org

More exciting news for the push to bring licensure to Missouri!

May 9, 2018

Dear Missouri Colleagues:

I am pleased to provide you an update on the Missouri Society of Radiologic Technologists’ recent legislative activities. The Missouri Society, ARRT, ASRT and our lobbyist have been actively engaged this legislative session and hope to see a licensure law enacted that will help to assure Missouri patients that an educationally prepared and clinically competent person is performing their radiology procedure.

The turmoil surrounding Governor Greitens has recently occupied a large amount of the legislature’s time; however, lawmakers have voted to hold a special session starting on May 19, 2018, to examine ethics issues. This special session will allow lawmakers to devote the few remaining weeks left in the current regular session to current legislative proposals currently under discussion including our licensure bills. Senate Bill 926, which creates licensure for radiographers, radiation therapists, nuclear medicine technologists, radiologist assistants and limited x-ray machine operators, was amended on to SB 718 which will hopefully be passed out of the House this week. The House version of the licensure bill, HB 2468, has been amended onto HB 2127 which is currently in the Senate and will come to the floor sometime within the next two weeks. Again, amending our bills on to other faster-moving bills will help us to make a faster ride through the legislative process.

The Missouri Society has moved our licensure efforts closer to enactment than we have ever been before. There are still plenty of opportunities for our bills to stall or left on the floor to die when the legislature adjourns. This is an extremely critical moment in the movement of the bills.

All Missouri R.T.s can help our patients by reaching out to lawmakers TODAY and demanding that they take action to pass SB 718 and HB 2127 into law. If we want to see Missouri become a state where R.T.s’ education, competency and patient care skills are taken seriously now is the time to call, email or visit your legislators to ask that they enact SB 718 and HB 2127.

News and updates about our legislative efforts will be posted on our society’s website www.mosrt.org. Make sure to check it regularly. The legislative session ends on May 18, 2018; but we have a lot of work to do between now and then. This effort will take all of us, plus family members and interested parties to make our voices heard in Jefferson City. Working together, we can assure our patients of quality radiology care in Missouri.

Diane Hutton BA, RT(R) ARRT
Missouri Society of Radiologic Technologists
Legislative Activities Chair
diane.hutton@mosrt.org

HB 2468 - Hearing Date Set

April 2, 2018

Bylaws Changes to be voted on at Conference

March 25, 2018

As was announced earlier this year, the Bylaws committee have put together some changes that must be voted on by our Active membership and this vote will occur at the 2018 Annual Conference.  Please go to our Bylaws page to read up on the proposed changes, a link can be found HERE.

Introducing HB 2468!

February 16, 2018

Good evening RT in JC attendees, ready for some good news?

HB 2468 was introduced by Rep Kathy Swan on February 15th. The bill has been introduced and first read already!! Not assigned to committee yet.

SB 926 has been assigned to committee and will have its hearing soon, look for more information. 'Hang on' as our bills seem to be really moving right now, which is awesome news!! I will let you know when I hear anything else.

As we talked about at our advocacy event, now is the time to start contacting your legislators asking for their support. Use the email template you will find on mosrt.org that you can customize or create your own email! Either way, reference the bill numbers and make sure you remind them that you are their constituent.  Please note, if you use the canned response on the ASRT's website, the very last sentence of the response has a typo for our bill number.  Please make sure you correct it to say S.B. 926.

Keep an eye on the state website, mosrt.org as information will be posted there too. I thought I would email you since you are the group that attended RT in JC.

Let me know if you have any questions, talk soon, Diane.

R.T. in JC 2018 - Follow-up

February 10, 2018

Diane Hutton BA, RT (R) ARRT
Legislative Activities Chair
Re: RT in JC

Good afternoon, I want to start this message off with a huge THANK YOU!! We can place RT in JC 2018 in the books with a huge win for our profession but more importantly for Missouri patients. 

I am impressed at your desire, your determination, and your participation in this event. The Capitol can be overwhelming, I think some of you experienced this, but the feedback I have received from our legislators has been very positive. Any time advocates come to the Capitol to express their wishes as constituents, they take notice!

Next steps: I continue to watch for the mirror House bill to be filed soon. As you know, SB 926 is filed and has been assigned to committee. I will let you know of any movements of these bills as soon as I hear. I am encouraged by the turn out, the messages I have received, and the fact we are ahead of schedule of where the bill is now.

Keep a close watch on mosrt.org for updates. Please send me questions as you think of them at diane.hutton@mosrt.org. 

All is good, 
Diane
 

Deadlines are fast approaching!

January 23, 2018

If you are going to be submitting a Scholarship Application, Essay, or Scientific Display, your deadlines are quickly approaching - January 31, 2018.  Also coming up quickly is the deadline for the Student Bowl Competition which is February 14, 2018.

It cannot be stressed enough, waiting until the last minute to submit your application has the potential to cause you to miss the deadline.  Unfortunately internet and power outages are a very real thing or the clock on your computer may be five to ten minutes slow compared to our servers.  DON'T WAIT!  Once the clock strikes midnight on the deadline date, the form is deactivated.

R.T. in JC 2018 - Update

January 8, 2018

Registration has now begun for R.T. in JC 2018 which is scheduled for February 7, 2018 at the Capitol.  Registration is not required to attend but it helps Diane and the MoSRT predict how many informational packets and handouts to bring.  Please use the following links to get started:

Click HERE for the R.T. in JC 2018 registration page.

Click HERE to find out who your local Senators are and how to contact them.

Click HERE to find out who your local Representatives are and how to contact them.

Legislative Activity Chair Update

January 1, 2018

MoSRT Legislative Update 2018
Diane Hutton BA, RT(R) ARRT
MoSRT Legislative Chair
January 1, 2018

Happy 2018! I sure hope you are ready to jump on the Legislative bandwagon as we begin the next Missouri legislative session for 2018. Here is what is going on:We have had several meetings with various groups over the summer and fall. These talks will help us prepare to present the next proposed bill to Senator Jeanne Riddle, who will again be our Senate sponsor. This is due to a request from Senator Riddle last session; all parties come together to present a bill we agree with prior to filing the bill.

My weekly calls with representatives from ARRT and ASRT have started. Our goal is to ‘skinny’ down the bill before Mike and I begin to shop the bill around at the capitol. 

As you can see, all the preliminary preparations are in full swing. My hope was to have the bill pre-filed in December but that did not happen. We are still in good standing regarding the timeline, but I am hopeful we can still get the bill filed in early January allowing us plenty of time to introduce the bill to members of the legislation. As you can imagine, we are very well known at the capitol, so I have confidence it will not take long to show the bill to the membership. Next move is to get a bill number, once that has been assigned I will get that information to you ASAP! 

Keep a watchful eye on the website, I will send information here first to keep everyone up to date. Once we have a bill number, that is when the games will begin for each of you! Look for continuing information here and emails soon to begin from ASRT. 

I thank each of you for your commitment to our state licensure and for being an advocate for our profession.

Also, we have a tentative agenda for our annual R.T. in JC event that is coming up!  You can find more information and a downloadable copy of it HERE.

Stay tuned,

Diane.
 

Legislative Activity Chair Update

December 9, 2017

Hello fellow medical imaging professionals,

I wanted to provide an update for you concerning our legislative efforts and our continued march towards state licensure in Missouri.

We have completed several meetings with organizations that have been opposed to our efforts in the past.  These meetings have gone extremely well, and we are in the process of rewriting our next proposed bill. 

RT in JC has been scheduled at the capitol and a room reserved. February 7, 2018 in HR 2 is the place to be. We will have our usual format of beginning our day with a lecture on how to speak with your legislator followed by Q&A. Then it will be out to the floor to visit with your legislators, educating them and asking for their support. Look for more information as it becomes available.

I would like to challenge you to be diligent in this upcoming legislative session. Once the bill has been assigned a bill number, I will get that information out to all of you with notification on our website. As Sal Martino, CEO of ASRT says “it is time to circle the wagons” and push forward to our goals. I feel this next session will either make or break many of our states who like us, are in this battle for our patients within our state. Watch for ASRT and MoSRT ‘call to action’ in which we will ask you to begin calling, emailing, and visiting your state legislators. Tell your legislators who we are, what we do, and why we are concerned with making sure educationally prepared and clinically competent individuals in Missouri are performing these procedures. The legislators need to know the vital role we play in the diagnosing of patients. 

Get your running shoes on! Be ready, be informed, and understand our goals. We all want to be able to assure each patient in Missouri, regardless of where you have your images done that the person in charge of your care while in the Radiology department is prepared to do so.

Thank you and it is a pleasure to continue this battle with each of you side by side,

Diane Hutton BA, RT(R) ARRT
MoSRT Legislative Chair

Special News Bulletin for Missouri Radiologic Technologists!

November 2, 2017

It is my extreme pleasure to announce to the membership Missouri Governor, Eric R. Greitens, has granted our request from the society to issue a proclamation of Radiologic Technology Week in Missouri. This is to be November 5-11, 2017 to coincide with National Radiologic Technology Week (NRTW), which celebrates and honors our profession every year. I truly hope this is a great sign for our march towards licensure for our profession in the legislative year to come. A huge thank you is due to Diane Hutton, our Legislative Activities Chair (LAC), for achieving this, and for all of her hard work and dedication to this effort. We have great things planned for our RT in JC event at the Capitol in February. Stay tuned to the website for details to come, including Bill numbers once they have been filed in 2018. Please spread the word and call your legislators when the time comes. 

Sincerely, 

Dustin Ward R.T.(R)(CT)(MR), A.R.R.T.
President
Missouri Society of Radiologic Technologists (MoSRT)
 

Conference Competitions/Honors for 2018 are available!

October 17, 2017

The MoSRT Board of Directors met on Saturday October 15, 2017 to discuss business, some of which involved competitions and honors that we award at our annual Conference.  Rules and applications are now official which means you can start working and submitting things today!  All Conference Chairpersons were asked to verify that the expiration date on their applications was correct before the Webmaster would open the applications up for submissions.

Also, as a reminder, our Student Intern Deadline for 2018 is rapidly approaching!  November 9th is the last day to apply!

What’s up with legislation?

October 6, 2017

Hello, I have a date I want to make sure you place in your calendar! We have a final date for our upcoming advocacy day, RT in JC. 

Wednesday February 7, 2018 will be our day at the capitol. We will be back in the House side, HR 2 (hearing room). We have had our event in this hearing room before; it is fantastic that we can have use of this room because this is the one room that will not get ‘bumped’ when the legislators go to their committees.

Keep an eye on the mosrt.org webpage. Updates will be posted here. With ASRT’s help, you will see some emails later this year for registration notices. Educators, I hope this is enough notice so that you can plan to have your students attend.

Thank you and I look forward to working together during this next legislative campaign.

Diane Hutton BA, RT(R)

MoSRT Legislative Chair

Upcoming CE Opportunities and General Information

Legislative Update

July 20, 2017

Hello fellow imaging professionals,

I wanted to share some wonderful news with you. As you probably remember, ARRT has financially sponsored our lobbyist, Mike Grote of Columbia Missouri for the last two legislative sessions. He has been instrumental in furthering our initiative of state licensure for anyone in Missouri who utilizes ionizing radiation. Our goal is to provide all Missouri patients with educationally prepared and clinically competent individuals performing all Radiology procedures. We absolutely need to have minimal educational standards in place to ensure radiation and patient safety for everyone.

I am thrilled to share ARRT will again sponsor Mike for another legislative session. Mike and I will again begin negotiations with our opposition in hopes of presenting a bill to our Senate sponsor. Once the legislative session begins in January 2018, I will ask each of you to renew your advocacy efforts for Missouri patients.

I will keep you all informed as we continue this drive. Look for updates on mosrt.org as we continue on this vital march. I look forward to joining with each of you as we continue this vital march toward quality Radiology care for everyone in Missouri.

Thank you,

Diane Hutton BA, RT(R) ARRT
MoSRT Legislative Activities Chair