• M Heller, S Melanson, J Patterson, and J Raftis.
• Emergency Medicine Residency of the Lehigh Valley, St. Luke's Hospital, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA.
• Am J Emerg Med. 1999 Jan 1;17(1):21-2.

AbstractTraining programs in bedside ultrasound for emergency physicians often encounter considerable resistance, partly because of concern that the number of radiology-interpreted studies ordered from the ED may decrease. This study attempted to determine the effect of instituting an ED training program in ultrasound on the ordering of formal studies from a department of radiology. This retrospective, computer-assisted review compared all abdominal sonograms ordered from the ED of a busy community hospital in the 3 years before introduction of an ultrasound training program (1992 through 1994) with those ordered in the 2 years after the program's inception (1995, 1996). The number of formal studies significantly increased after institution of the training program, both in terms of absolute numbers (annual mean 181 v 95, P < .001) and as a percentage of all outpatient sonograms ordered at the institution (9.8% v 5.1%, P < .001). Introduction of a teaching program in emergency ultrasound appears to increase utilization of formal ultrasound services, at least during the training period.

23 keywords...

hide…