But mammography machines and the film processors that develop the pictures can be finicky, much like a home printer or office copy machine. If a machine isn't set or used properly, problems can arise. They usually are conducted simultaneously because the federal government contracts with most states, including Michigan, to do federal inspections. There is some overlap between state and federal standards, but most in the field consider Michigan's law tougher. The federal inspection system, for example, allows a facility to pass a test for machine image quality as long as it can find a minimum number of objects on one of two X-ray pictures of a mammography testing device.
State law cites a machine with a violation if it misses too many objects on a single view.
Many facilities are so concerned about public perception that any violations are corrected quickly. Most doctors welcome the scrutiny as a type of quality control. We want them to find things if they are slightly out of kilter, so there are no serious problems. How machines are checked To check machine quality, inspectors use a test device called a phantom, a block of Lucite containing a wax insert. The Lucite holds three different test objects that simulate the way microscopic traces of cancer appear on an X-ray.