A patient-centred model to quality assure outputs from an echocardiography department: consensus guidance from the British Society of Echocardiography

A patient-centred model to quality assure outputs from an echocardiography department: consensus guidance from the British Society of Echocardiography

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Background: Quality assurance (QA) of echocardiographic studies is vital to ensure that clinicians can act on findings of high quality to deliver excellent patient care.To date, there is a paucity of published guidance on how to perform this QA.The British Society of Echocardiography (BSE) has 6 PIECE BODY CARE KIT previously produced an Echocardiography Quality Framework (EQF) to assist departments with their QA processes.This article expands on the EQF with a structured yet versatile approach on how to analyse echocardiographic departments to ensure high-quality standards are met.

In addition, a process is detailed for departments that are seeking to demonstrate to external bodies adherence to a robust QA process.Methods: The EQF consists of four domains.These include assessment of Echo Quality (including study acquisition and report generation); Reproducibility & Consistency (including analysis of individual variability when compared to the group and focused clinical audit), Education & Training (for all providers and service users) and Customer & Staff Satisfaction (of both service users and T-Shirts patients/their carers).Examples of what could be done in each of these areas are presented.

Furthermore, evidence of participation in each domain is categorised against a red, amber or green rating: with an amber or green rating signifying that a quantifiable level of engagement in that aspect of QA has been achieved.Conclusion: The proposed EQF is a powerful tool that focuses the limited time available for departmental QA on areas of practice where a change in patient experience or outcome is most likely to occur.