RFGA2027-015 Radiation Protection System Grant Program

The Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS), Arizona Biomedical Research Centre (ABRC), is responsible for administering the Radiation Protection System Grant Program. Pursuant to Laws 2026, Chap. 126, 57th Leg., 2nd Reg. Session, SB1847, Sec. 43, $1,500,000 in state general fund monies was appropriated to the "Radiation protection system grants" line item within the ADHS Public Health/Family Health budget for fiscal year 2026-2027 (https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/57leg/2R/laws/0126.pdf). The session law directs that this amount "shall be used by the department to establish and administer a grant program to assist rural hospitals with the cost of installing radiation protection systems in cardiac catheterization procedure rooms in which real-time x-ray imaging procedure[s] occur."
This appropriation supports Laws 2026, Chap. 142, 57th Leg. 2nd Reg. Session, SB1121, effective September 12, 2026 (https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/57leg/2R/laws/0142.pdf), which added Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) § 36-420.06 to the hospital licensing statutes (Title 36, Chapter 4, Article 1). A.R.S. § 36-420.06(A-C) to permit a hospital that performs cardiac catheterization procedures involving real-time x-ray imaging to forgo requiring physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and other health professionals to wear lead aprons during those procedures if the procedure room is equipped with a qualifying "radiation protection system" in use according to the manufacturer's instructions. The statute preserves the authority of the hospital's Radiation Safety Officer (RSO), or the RSO's designee, to require lead aprons, thyroid collars, or other radiation personal protective equipment when staff exposures are determined - under the "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" (ALARA) standard - to be approaching occupational dose thresholds. It also requires hospitals to provide a real-time dosimeter device to any health professional who elects to forgo a lead apron in reliance on the radiation protection system, and it preserves any health professional's right to voluntarily continue wearing a lead apron regardless of the system's presence.
A.R.S. § 36-420.06(D), defines a radiation protection system, "…as a shielding system designed to protect against scatter or direct ionizing radiation exposure, that provides protection equal to or greater than the shielding effectiveness of a 0.25 millimeter lead-equivalent apron." This Grant establishes the requirements, tasks, and deliverables for grant funding to rural hospitals to purchase and install radiation protection systems meeting this standard, reducing the cumulative radiation and musculoskeletal burden on cardiac catheterization lab staff who would otherwise wear lead aprons for extended procedures.