Patients are usually in the supine position for CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, X-ray, or ultrasound exams. There are a few exceptions, such as getting a chest or foot X-ray where the patient is standing up. Sometimes for ultrasound exams, children need to be held by their parents if they are too young to remain still.
For CT, MRI and nuclear medicine exams, we use a specialized bed that helps to place our patients in the correct position, getting them in and out of the scanning machine. Often our patients are transferred on a hospital bed, especially in MRI, and need to be moved to a scanning bed. The attached video is a tutorial we show to our staff on how to transfer our patients from one bed to another safely.
Meredith Towbin, copy editor