Standard

Advanced

• Both clinical and technical heads of echocardiography
• Clinical head
• Has at least one PA dedicated to echo
• Technical head spends 5 or more sessions in echocardiographic activities (including management or quality control)
• Agreed minimum standards for studies
• Patient information leaflet available including arrangements for chaperones
• List of indications for echo published internally
• Triaging of requests
• Report database
• System of review for uncertain echocardiograms
• System of alerts for important pathology found at echocardiography
• Provision for continuing education
• Studies archived. Reports written that day
• Most machines have 2^nd harmonic imaging
• All machines have colour and stand-alone Doppler
• No machine in regular use upgraded more than 10 years ago
• 30-40 minutes allowed per standard study and up to 1 hour for a complex study
• All sonographers reporting studies Band 6 or higher
• Data protection act applied
• Manual handling policy implemented
• Rooms uncluttered and of adequate size
• Appropriate provision of patient facilities

• Both technical and clinical heads have BSE accreditation
• Formal and systematic quality control in place
• Technical Head spends 8 or more sessions in echocardiography
• Clinical Head spends 2 or more sessions in activities directly related to echocardiography
• Digital archiving
• No machine in regular use older than 5 years
• All trained sonographers BSE accredited
• One or more rooms at least 20 m² in area
• One WTE sonographer for no more than 2000 standard and complex studies per annum
• System of liaison with other departments to advise about timing of or results of studies
• A patient information leaflet available
• Adequate storage space