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© 2004 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
J Ultrasound Med 23:1023-1029 • 0278-4297

The Accreditation of Ultrasound Practices

Impact on Compliance With Minimum Performance Guidelines

Alfred Z. Abuhamad, MD, Beryl R. Benacerraf, MD, Paula Woletz, MPH, RDMS, RDCS and Bonnie L. Burke, MS

Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology (A.Z.A.) and Epidemiology and Biometry (B.L.B.), Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts USA (B.R.B.); and American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, Laurel, Maryland USA (P.W.).

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Alfred Z. Abuhamad, MD, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Hofheimer Hall, Suite 310, 825 Fairfax Ave, Norfolk, VA 23507 USA. E-mail: abuhamaz{at}evms.edu.

Objective. To determine the effectiveness of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) accreditation program in improving compliance with standards and guidelines for the performance of obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound examinations. Methods. Scores of case studies of accreditation applications were compared with their respective scores at the time of reaccreditation 3 years later. To account for the element of time, scores of applications that recently completed first-time accreditation were also compared as a control group. Results. Individual obstetric case studies, as well as the average of all obstetric and gynecologic case studies, showed highly significant improvement with the reaccreditation application when compared with the initial accreditation application 3 years earlier (all P < .001). The proportion of practices successfully meeting obstetric and gynecologic AIUM accreditation requirements improved significantly with reaccreditation (obstetric, 57.3% for accreditation compared with 86.6% for reaccreditation; gynecologic, 60% for accreditation compared with 91.9% for reaccreditation; P < .001). Furthermore, reaccreditation scores were significantly higher than scores of recent first-time applications for obstetric case studies as well as scores of the average of obstetric and gynecologic case studies (all P < .05). Conclusions. Our study confirms that practices that sought and received ultrasound accreditation were able to improve the scores of case studies and compliance with published minimum standards and guidelines for the performance of obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound examinations when reevaluated 3 years after the initial application scores. This improvement should translate into an enhancement of the quality of ultrasound practice.

Key Words: accreditation • certification • performance guidelines • ultrasound

Abbreviations: AIUM, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine • CME, continuing medical education • IQR, interquartile range • RADIUS, Routine Antenatal Diagnostic Imaging with Ultrasound




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