Performance, training, quality assurance, and reimbursement of emergency physician-performed ultrasonography at academic medical centers.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the current state of bedside emergency physician-performed ultrasonography in terms of prevalence, training, quality assurance, and reimbursement at emergency medicine residency programs.


METHODS
The link to a 10-question Web-based survey was e-mailed to ultrasound/residency directors at 122 emergency medicine residency programs in the United States.


RESULTS
The overall response rate was 84%. Ninety-two percent of programs reported 24-hour emergency physician-performed ultrasonography availability. Fifty-one percent of programs reported that a credentialing/privileging plan was in place at their hospital, and 71% of programs had a quality assurance/image review procedure in place. Emergency medicine specialty-specific guidelines of 150 ultrasonographic examinations and 40 hours of didactic instruction were met by 39% and 22% of residencies, respectively, although only 13.7% of programs were completing the 300 examinations recommended by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine. Sixteen programs (16%) reported that they were currently billing for emergency physician-performed ultrasonography; of those not billing, 10 (12%) planned to bill within 1 year, and 32 (37%) planned to bill at some point in the future.


CONCLUSIONS
Performance and training in emergency physician-performed ultrasonography at academic medical centers continues to increase. The number of emergency medicine residency programs meeting specialty-specific guidelines has more than doubled in the last 4 years, but only a small number are meeting American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine guidelines. Although only 16% of programs reported that they were currently billing for emergency physician-performed ultrasonography, most had plans to bill in the future.
Moore
Christopher L
CL
Section of Emergency Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06519, USA. chris.moore@yale.edu
Gregg
Sara
S
Lambert
Michael
M
D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000458:organization & administration; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; D007396:Internship and Residency; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States