The words we hear most often (that we can repeat here!) when we discuss Accreditation is “tedious”, “time-consuming” and “frustrating”. Clients ask me if I’m a glutton for punishment to spend all day, every day processing accreditation applications and dealing with so much paperwork!!
We want to make sure you start the year off right in regards to meeting the new Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) Quality Improvement requirements and provide you with time saving tricks and techniques to ensure compliance. Whether your accreditation is in echocardiography, vascular, nuclear, MRI or CT we know how easy it is to fall behind on your quarterly QI requirements. We want to help you with our blog series on Accreditation Hacks. Don’t be fooled by the name, we want to teach you time hacks but never quality hacks! We believe in the process of accreditation to improve diagnostic healthcare and always focus on improving quality while saving time. This week in part one we will present a clear understanding of the new Quality Improvement changes across each modality.
Lots of new additions to CardioServ this year – new faces, new software and even new exercise equipment! Also, learn about important changes to accreditation guidelines coming up in the next couple of months and see our favorite blog posts this year.
An 85 year old patient presents to the ER with worsening shortness of breath and a history of known pulmonary hypertension. Her chest x-ray reveals massive cardiomegaly. An echo is ordered to assess the status of her pulmonary hypertension. We will present this echo to illustrate the correct techniques when performing an echocardiogram with the indication of pulmonary hypertension. Learn about the LV Eccentricity index and the latest recommendations for calculating correct RA pressure through evaluation of the IVC.
Pulmonary embolism continues to cause at least 60,000 deaths per year in the United States according to CDC statistics. Ten percent of symptomatic pulmonary emboli are fatal within one hour of symptoms onset. However, diagnosis can often be difficult because the presenting signs and symptoms are nonspecific and often mimic other cardiac and pulmonary diseases. Interventional strategies to remove or dissolve thrombi continue to improve. With these improvements, our ability to understand and diagnose also needs to improve. Echocardiography can aid in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and provides important functional information about the right and left ventricle that cannot be ascertained from other tests.
Here is a great case from Dr. Wharton on Medscape of a 45 year old patient with hyperlipidemia (high LDL-C and high triglycerides) taking a high-potency statin who presents with pericardial effusion and signs of tamponade.
Up until now most facilities are familiar with their options for accrediting organizations when it comes time to submit their nuclear application to seek their mandated Nuclear Accreditation. Many are aware of the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (known to many as ICANL) and the American College of Radiology (ACR). There is also the less known Joint Commission Ambulatory Accreditation for Imaging Centers too. Did you know there is now a fourth accreditation organization approved by CMS for imaging accreditation?
This week we stumped a lot of you with Cardiophile’s Echo Quiz. The most common answer we got from our followers was Ebstein’s anomaly and it is easy to see why as both diseases share marked enlargement of the right atrium. Let’s discuss the two diseases and how to differentiate them.
Before starting CardioServ, an Accreditation Consulting business in 2007, I used to scan full-time in adult and pediatric echo. I too, like most other techs, had constant and nagging neck pain. Once I stopped the daily scanning and my neck pain eased up, it was out of sight out of mind. My days became consumed with consulting and teaching instead of scanning so I no longer exposed myself to repetitive stress injuries that many sonographers face.main
Focused ultrasound (FUS) made headlines in the United States recently with the FDA approval of the therapy for ablation of prostate cancer. As the Education director at an accreditation consulting firm specializing in diagnostic imaging, I was immediately intrigued by this new form of treatment and wanted to know how it could be used to potentially treat cardiovascular diseases.
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