Impact of emergency medicine resident training in ultrasonography on ultrasound utilization

Training programs in bedside ultrasound for emergency physicians often enco unter considerable resistance, partly because of concern that the number of radiology interpreted studies ordered from the ED may decrease. This study attempted to determine the effect of instituting an ED training program in ultrasound on the ordering of formal studies from a department of radiolog y, This retrospective, computer-assisted review compared all abdominal sono grams ordered from the ED of a busy community hospital in the 3 years befor e introduction of an ultrasound training program (1992 through 1994) with t hose ordered in the 2 years after the program's inception (1995, 1996), The number of formal studies significantly increased after institution of the training program, both in terms of absolute numbers (annual mean 181 v 95, P <.001) and as a percentage of all outpatient sonograms ordered at the ins titution (4.8% v 5.1%, P<.001), Introduction of a teaching program in emerg ency ultrasound appears to increase utilization of formal ultrasound servic es, at least during the training period. Copyright (C) 1999 by W.B. Saunder s Company.