ArticlePediatric quality & safety
Quality Improvement Methodology Facilitates Adherence to Echocardiogram Protocol Measurements.
Article in Pediatric quality & safety. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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0 citing papers in PubMed, 1 citations in OpenAlex.
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionLocal institutional echocardiogram protocols reflect standard measurements as per national guidelines, but adherence to measurements was inconsistent. This inconsistency led to variability in reporting and impacted the use of serial measurements for clinical decision-making. Therefore, we aimed to improve complete adherence to universal and protocol-specific measures for echocardiograms performed for first-time or cardiomyopathy studies from 60% to 90% from July 2019 to February 2020.
methodsWe included all sonographer-performed echocardiograms for first-time or cardiomyopathy protocol studies. We reviewed universal measures and protocol-specific measures for all included studies. We created a scoring system reflecting measurement completion. We used a control chart to measure compliance and established a baseline over 2 months. PDSA cycles over 5 months included interventions such as sonographer education, technical improvements to the measurement toolbar, and group and individual performance feedback.
resultsWe reviewed over 4000 studies-the reporting of complete universal measures improved significantly from a median score of 60% to 93%. Protocol-specific measures for first-time studies also showed significant improvement from 62% to 90% adherence. Cardiomyopathy-specific measures demonstrated 87% adherence at baseline, which improved to 95% but then returned to baseline. Sonographer education and toolbar adjustment prompted special cause variation with further improvement following performance feedback. The universal and first-time protocol measures reached 90% adherence with sustained improvement for over 9 months.
conclusionsWe employed quality improvement methodology to improve complete adherence to echocardiographic protocol measurements, thereby facilitating echocardiographic quality and reporting consistency. We plan to spread these interventions to improve adherence to other protocols.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.