EMERGENCY ULTRASOUND SERVICES AS PERCEIVED BY DIRECTORS OF RADIOLOGY AND EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

Despite widespread concern that emergency ultrasound services are not widely available after regular business hours, data supporting or refu ting this concern have not been reported, To determine the availabilit y of emergency ultrasound services as perceived by directors of emerge ncy departments (EDs) and radiology departments, direct mail survey wa s sent to both ED Directors and Directors of Radiology at 100 large te aching hospitals (more than 300 beds) and 100 smaller nonteaching hosp itals (fewer than 300 beds) chosen at random from the American Heart A ssociation Guide. Ouestions elicited the directors' perceptions of ava ilability of emergency ultrasound services in their own institutions a s well as their attitudes toward performance of ultrasound examination s by emergency physicians, The overall response rate was 53%, It was f ound that 24-hour in-house ultrasound services are rarely available ev en in large teaching hospitals, even as reported by Directors of Radio logy. ED Directors and Directors of Radiology differ significantly in perceptions of ultrasound availability, clinical importance of emergen cy ultrasound, and desirability of ultrasound performance by ED physic ians. (C) 1995 by W.B. Saunders