3 Steps to Getting Buy-In For Your Ultrasound Programme

How To Get Buy-In For Your Bedside Ultrasound Program
Anyone who has ever tried to change the way medicine is practised knows that inertia makes it difficult to get buy-in from colleagues and administrators. Introducing a relatively familiar technology, like point-of-care ultrasound, into a broader hospital setting might not seem like a difficult task, but all procedural changes face some kind of resistance. In Germany, physicians at the Evangelisches Krankenhaus have been able to expand the application of POCUS through multiple wards using three methods.   …

Anesthesia Ultrasound for Perioperative Care - Beyond the Block

Anesthesia Ultrasound for Perioperative Care
The role of the anesthesiologist is evolving to include perioperative care With hospitals seeking innovative ways to streamline patient care and improve outcomes, anesthesiologists are increasingly expected to provide patient care beyond general anesthesia and nerve blocks. But beyond the block, how does perioperative ultrasound help anesthesiologists do their jobs? The answer has a lot to do with the changing practice of medicine. …

Point-of-Care Ultrasound Shows Promise for Osgood-Schlatter Diagnosis

Osgood-Schlatter disease is a developmental disorder that causes musculoskeletal problems and is rare in the normal population. However, the condition is more common in teenagers who play sports, affecting an estimated 3-5% percent of this population; it causes painful inflammation below the knee in adolescents and can lead to permanent soft tissue damage. The condition is often diagnosed by MRI, which is both costly and impractical for screening purposes. …

Watch the Value of Endobronchial Ultrasound Webinar

Are you a pulmonologist, interventional pulmonologist, or thoracic surgeon? Check out our webinar “Lung Cancer: The State of the Disease,” from the Endoscopy Division of FUJIFILM. More people die every year from lung cancer than from colon, breast, and prostate cancer combined. In August 2016, we aired “Lung Cancer: The State of the Disease.” It’s a timely and informative webinar led by David Feller-Kopman, MD, Director of Bronchoscopy & Interventional Pulmonology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a world-renowned expert in his field. …

User Stories: Madrid's Emergency Services and Portable Ultrasound

Since point-of-care ultrasound systems were originally designed for dealing with emergencies in a battlefield setting, it's not surprising that ultrasound now plays a pivotal role in emergency vehicles around the world. Dr Ramón de Elías Hernandez, head of on-call doctors at SAMUR, Madrid’s municipal emergency service, describes the advantages that point-of-care ultrasound brings to his everyday life. …

Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Access Programme Saves St. Joseph's $3.5 Million

Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality Matthew Ostroff, ARNP The American College of Emergency Physicians issued a policy statement in 2016 advocating a new safety standard for vascular access through the use of ultrasound guidance. St. Joseph's Healthcare System, in Paterson, N.J., launched a programme that has yielded significant safety and quality of care improvements for all patients requiring vascular access. This article describes how St. Joseph's cut healthcare costs and improved patient outcomes by achieving the "one-stick standard". …

Point-of-care ultrasound systems prove ideal for the Children’s Acute Transport

London, UK, February 16, 2017 - The Children’s Acute Transport Service (CATS) depends on point-of-care ultrasound systems to get quick and accurate vascular access in critically ill children being transferred to specialist treatment centres. Advanced Nurse Practitioner Cathy Roberts explained: “In the UK, paediatric intensive care is provided at centralised units, and children needing this care must be safely transferred there by people with appropriateknowledge and skills. …

User Stories: 25 Years of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Anaesthesia

Dr. Thomas Grau, Head of Anaesthesia, Surgery, Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain at the Gütersloh Clinic, first studied ultrasound for a PhD on spinal imaging at Heidelberg University Hospital in the 1990s. 25 years on, he reflects on the role p
Dr. Thomas Grau, Head of Anaesthesia, Surgery, Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain at the Gütersloh Clinic, first studied ultrasound for a PhD on spinal imaging at Heidelberg University Hospital in the 1990s. 25 years on, he reflects on the role point-of-care ultrasound now plays in anaesthesia.  "My first encounters with ultrasound were guided by efforts in Heidelberg to improve epidural anaesthesia in obstetrics. …

Ultrasound Guided Nerve Blocks, Not Opioids, for Post-Operative Pain Management

Dr. Sonia Szlyk, an anesthesiologist and director of regional anesthesia for North American Partners in  Anesthesia's Mid-Atlantic division, explains how local anesthesia (aided by ultrasound guidance) is  helping control post-operative discomfort wit
It’s no secret that the U.S. is in the throes of a major heroin epidemic, at least partly caused by the over-prescription of opioid painkillers by well-meaning physicians. When it comes to perioperative pain control, there are new ways to tackle patient discomfort without resorting to prescription opioids. …

Sonosite Institute: Paravertebral Nerve Block Education Module

Log into Sonosite Institute today, and begin your ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block education with our new learning module
Log into Sonosite Institute today, and begin your ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block education with our new learning module. This module will show you how to: …

Six Secrets of Implementing Ultrasound in Paediatric Emergency Medicine

Becker's Hospital Review Russ Horowitz, MD, RDMS Ultrasound is an important tool for rapid assessment of trauma patients, CVC and regional nerve block placement, facilitating difficult PIV access, and assessing cardiac function during resuscitations. In this article, Russ Horowitz, MD, RDMS, discusses six strategies to help implement ultrasound at the bedside in paediatric emergency medicine. …

Proposed CMS Hospital Outpatient Department Rule Detrimental for Imaging Services in CY 2017

Healthcare Business News Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA In this article for DOTmed News, Jill Rathbun discusses the proposed CMS hospital outpatient department rule and how it will impact imaging services in CY 2017. Read more to understand how payments may be restructured to reduce the total number of classifications. …

Performance-Based Payment & Orthopedics: A Focus For The Medicare Program

Becker's Hospital CFO Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA In this informative article for Becker's CFO, Jill Rathbun covers the newly implemented CMS Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement payment model. While the program began April 1, 2016, many of the hospitals were not, and are still not, prepared to participate. Read more to understand the basics of the model and how to be successful. …

Fujifilm Design Studio: Sonosite SII Wins Silver at International Design Excellence Awards

Sonosite SII Wins Silver at International Design Excellence Awards
Last year, Craig Chamberlain and his team of designers traveled around the world – over 101,964 miles, to be exact – meeting clinicians in hospitals and clinics to observe how they use point-of-care ultrasound. Chamberlain is the Director of Experience Design at FUJIFILM Sonosite, heading up a team of Industrial, Experience, and Human Factors designers, and this type of “user-oriented” observation is part of Sonosite’s unique design process. “We’re extremely excited to have won the Silver at IDEA 2016,” said Chamberlain. …

8 Ways to Avoid Central Line Placement Complications

Placing a central venous catheter using ultrasound guidance
Central line complications: they’re risky, costly, and all-around burden to healthcare. Whether it’s CLABSIs or iatrogenic pneumothoraces, CVC complications are not just terrifying for patients and unnerving for doctors; they are also costly for medical facilities. Fortunately, there are tested methods for Iatrogenic Pneumothorax Prevention with POCUS that can drastically reduce complication rates (and associated costs) for critically ill patients who require venous catheterization.  …

POINT-OF-CARE ULTRASOUND – AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR EMERGENCY MEDICINE

Dr. Rip Gangahar
Point-of-care ultrasound systems are now a ubiquitous sight in UK hospitals, with applications across virtually every discipline from anaesthesia to palliative care. Despite this, training in ultrasound use occurs on an ad hoc basis in many specialties, and is not a component of the formal curriculum for general medical students. …

Ultrasound Technology Designed for MSK, Developing a Positive Image

Orthopedic Design & Technology Bill Medford, MSK Ultrasonographer In an article by FUJIFILM Sonosite's own Bill Medford, RDMS, RMSKS, Lead Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Specialist, he explains how as a clinical expert with over 17 years of experience, he sees the advances in ultrasound and in particular the X-Porte's significant contribution to the practice of musculoskeletal (MSK) medicine. With new breakthroughs in technology and the increasing interest in improving diagnostic capability at the point-of-care, the X-Porte's design and image qual …

Six Steps to Implement Bedside Ultrasonography in Critical Care

Health Management Magazine Nidhi Nikhanj, M.D. In this article for ​Health Management Magazine, Dr. Nidhi Nikhanj lays out the path for a system-wide implementation of point of care ultrasound to bring quality of care and enhanced patient safety to the bedside. See the six steps that a large health system used to successfully adopt ultrasound. Read Article …

New Increased Tax Deductions on Ultrasound!

Newly increased:  Deduct up to $500k on ultrasound through December 31! Increase quality of patient care by adding ultrasound to your practice by utilizing tax incentives and 0% financing available through December 2015. Newly increased tax deductions!  Take advantage of the Section 179 tax incentives through December 31:  Deduct $500k on all capital equipment investments up to $2M. Also, get 0% financing for 36 months on Sonosite ultrasound systems. …

Taking Ultrasound to Mongolia by Ingrid Yuile

mongolia-sonosite-blog
Ultrasound educator Ingrid Yuile took her training skills and Sonosite EDGE to the steppes of Mongolia and found a country of beauty and complexity.  This is her story… “In June 2015, I set off with 8 intrepid emergency physicians to teach emergency medicine to Mongolian doctors across a range disciplines. A strong relationship between Australian and Mongolian anaesthetists has been forged since 2001 when Dr David Pesod first represented Australia at an anaesthesia conference.  …