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Full-Text Articles in Cardiology
Appropriateness Of Inpatient Transthoracic Echocardiography In A Community Hospital With A New Cardiology Fellowship Program, Christian D. Avalos, Y. Wady Aude
Appropriateness Of Inpatient Transthoracic Echocardiography In A Community Hospital With A New Cardiology Fellowship Program, Christian D. Avalos, Y. Wady Aude
Research Colloquium
Background: The 2011 Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) for echocardiography was developed to guide in the rational use of high quality cardiovascular imaging. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) orders with seemingly inappropriate indications were repeatedly identified at our hospital. Our goals were to identify the percentage of inappropriate TTEs, find a correlation between ordering physicians and appropriateness of TTEs, and reduce the inappropriate use of TTEs in the inpatient setting.
Methods: After implementing a required free-text indication for TTE orders, the indications of 100 random TTEs were retrospectively categorized as appropriate, inappropriate, and uncertain based on the AUC. TTEs for cardiac evaluation prior …