Scheduling/Billing Policy

• The IRC charges for scheduled rather than logged hours (on both scanners). We also charge for overruns of the scheduled time slot. If an investigator is unable to start their scan on time due to a previous overrun, this would be considered an exception. Overruns will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
• The IRC does not charge for cancellations/no shows. To avoid being inadvertently billed, the investigator is required to remove their canceled slot from the Yahoo Calendar. As a courtesy, the investigator is also asked to notify the fmri-mri-group email list.
  • Note on subject aborts: If a subject aborts the scan session and no useful data is acquired, please treat this as a cancellation. If some useful data was acquired, please update the time slot's end time in the Yahoo Calendar to reflect the time the subject left. Don't update the time slot's begin time.
• Scanner operators should should enter both scheduled and actual times in the scanner log. This will help us determine whether a user exceeded their scheduled time. The operator is also encouraged to note any extenuating circumstances.
• Using the Yahoo Calendar:
  1. Each time slot on the Yahoo Calendar should include both the name of the PI as well as contact information for the person running the scan.
  2. A specific subject must be identified a week in advance for each scheduled scan. On the Yahoo calendar, this should be reflected by the subject's initials along with some kind of study-specific subject ID.
  3. Investigators are encouraged to schedule scans back-to-back with previously scheduled scans. This will help minimize unusable gaps in the schedule.
  4. If an investigator intends to schedule more than one subject during their time at the scanner, they should schedule contiguous time slots for each subject. Then if one subject cancels, the appropriate time slot can be deleted independently.
• If an investigator isn't able to complete a scan due to technical problems, they should promptly notify Scott Martin and remove the scheduled time slot from the Yahoo Calendar. The appropriate IRC technical staff member will then follow up on the request to determine whether or not the investigator should receive a refund.