Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training and Credentialing for mid-late Career Emergency Physicians: Is it worth it?

Courtney Smalley,Erin Simon,Mckinsey Muir,Baruch Fertel,Fernando Delgado

doi:10.24908/pocus.v6i2.14891

Courtney Smalley, Erin Simon + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.24908/pocus.v6i2.14891

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Journal: POCUS Journal	Publication Date: Dec 3, 2021
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Cleveland Clinic, Akron General Medical Center

Abstract

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is becoming more prevalent in community emergency medicine (EM) practice with the current American College of Emergency Physician guidelines recommending POCUS training for all graduates from United States based residency programs as well as support for POCUS privileging by the American Medical Association. However, in a recent survey of nonacademic EDs, it was found that most providers lack US training, credentialing, and quality assurance (QA) assessments of their POCUS studies. In 2017, our healthcare system embarked on a system-wide credentialing process for POCUS to credential community physicians with little to no POCUS training.

Highlights

Dear Editor: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is becoming more prevalent in community emergency medicine (EM) practice with the current American College of Emergency Physician guidelines recommending POCUS training for all graduates from United States based residency programs as well as support for POCUS privileging by the American Medical Association [1-3]
For the physicians who successfully completed the practicebased pathway for competency by June 30, 2018, we reviewed the number of studies performed, the types of POCUS studies performed, and quality issues for 28 months after POCUS training
A total of 45% (172/379) of exams performed were eligible for documentation and billing for Basic POCUS privileges: focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) (N=158), aorta (N=13), central line (N=1), (Figure 1)

Summary

Introduction

Dear Editor: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is becoming more prevalent in community emergency medicine (EM) practice with the current American College of Emergency Physician guidelines recommending POCUS training for all graduates from United States based residency programs as well as support for POCUS privileging by the American Medical Association [1-3]. Ultrasound (all scan types required for completion) Requirements for Point-of-Care Ultrasound Study 1.Adequate image acquisition 2.Adequate image interpretation 3.Appropriate labeling of each image practice-based pathway was complete.

Results

Conclusion