|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
Re: Basic/Advance OB ultrasound reportFrom: Philippe Jeanty (jeanty@TheFetus.net)Tue Aug 14 12:11:42 2001
I was not a subscriber on this list and so only got aware of the following note from Terry by a kind soul who forwarded to me a copy of Terry's comment. This is Terry's note (at least as I received it), and I have imbedded my responses in it. Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 7:06 AM Subject: Re: Basic/Advance OB ultrasound report The lecture which Dr. Jeanty gave at the ISUOG in Buenos Aries on this subject in which he stated that in his office the exams were done approximately 4 per hour was very miss leading. At the end of his lecture I ask him specifically about this issue of time for the exam, and as it turns out, he has 4 very skilled and experienced sonographers (ARDMS certified) who actually do the exams, and he does write 4 reports per hour. But the individuals who actually do the exams take much longer than 15 minutes to do a complete sonographic examination. This kind of misleading and incomplete information is dangerous to our profession, and leads to RADIUS quality examinations.
>>> PJ comments on Terry's note >>>> I am afraid that Terry had an incorrect recollection of the conversation. I have had for years 3 sonographers (all excellent) and I am only now opening a 4th position. We do not do 4 exams per hour for the whole group, each sonographer does exams in much less time. It would be silly to give an official duration for each exam but typically a pelvic/1st trimester ob is about 3-5 minutes and a 2nd trimester 7-10 minutes. This is scanning time. To that you have to add the time I take to rescan the Ob patients (2-3 minutes). If the patient has a complication or requires counseling this, of course, adds time. The turn around of the room adds a few more minutes. So by and large the exams are scheduled every 20 minutes. This does not mean that my sonographers do 8 times 3 exams a day but typical days average 16-20 exams (including procedures such as sonohystero, amnios, cyst drainage..). When I was in Europe I was doing about 50 exams a day all by myself. I realize this was some times ago, but the exams I was doing at that time included all the measurements that I collected for my biometry research.
>>> End of PJ comments on Terry's note >>>> While the actual time from the first image to the very last image may be done in 15-30 minutes for a NORMAL pregnancy, depending upon the skill and knowledge of the operator, this does not include the time necessary to take an adequate history, interact with the human patient, and deal with "turning the room around" for the next patient. It also does not account for the time necessary to adequately evaluate if abnormalities are found. We are dealing with humans and a very important event in their lives... we should not treat them like cattle in the slaughter house.
>>> PJ comments on Terry's note >>>> Actually my patients do not feel the least bit like "cattle", and I have the "thank you notes" to back this up. I find it particularly important to pay great attention to the human aspect of the examination. It is definitely not the amount of time that is important, but the insight and the willingness to listen to the patient's point of view and worries that makes for a successful interaction. I am not sure if Terry has ever listen to my lecture on "Pitfalls and Artifact" in which I discuss this. I also, and I realize that this not typical, giv each and every OB patient my E-mail and home phone number so if they have any further question or if a family member that was not in attendance (a traveling hubby for instance) has any further questions they have direct access to me. I would welcome Terry's visit in our unit if he has any further doubts or questions about how we run our operation.
>>> End of PJ comments on Terry's note >>>> I hope Dr. Jeanty will address this here... and be very clear about who is doing the exams in what time frame. In addition, if sonographers are expected to work at a pace that allows for 15 minute exams, all day long, you will quickly burnout
>>> PJ comments on Terry's note >>>> Well actually if you review the "Mentor's" section in the recent RDMS journal, you can review the comments of Cheryl Turner. I assume this should alleviate concerns that I abuse my sonographers.
>>> End of PJ comments on Terry's note >>>> and injure the best and very skilled staff. For information about Repeated Stress Injuries in sonographers, see www.SDMS.org <http://www.SDMS.org> , click on "WorkZone". Peace, Terry J DuBose, M.S., RDMS, APS Little Rock, Arkansas USA Please amend your files and change my E-mail from jeanty@pov.net to jeanty@TheFetus.net
At Mon, 13 Aug 2001, Terry J DuBose wrote:
>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
|
|
Return to
|
Mail a New Message to the Forum: ultrasound@obgyn.net Forum Administrator: terry.dubose@obgyn.net Report Technical Problems: webmaster@obgyn.net Last Updated: Thu Oct 2 05:18:18 2008 |
The American Medical Association is no longer designating CME hours for AMA Category II CME credit. However, physicians themselves may self designate learning activities as Category II CME credit hours if they feel it is of sufficient educational merit and meets the formal definitions of continuing medical education. OBGYN.net believes these interaction in this forum meets these criteria. For further information see the AMA web site.