The Echocardiography Quality Framework: a comprehensive, patient-centered approach to quality assurance and continuous service improvement

Abstract

The Echocardiography Quality Framework (EQF) is a unique, comprehensive, holistic approach to improving all aspects of an echocardiography service. The EQF is a patient-centered program, combining Quality Assurance and Continuous Service Improvement. The framework encompasses measures of (i) the quality of echocardiography, (ii) reproducibility and consistency, (iii) education and training, and (iv) customer feedback. The EQF is scalable and adaptable to benefit any echocardiography service. A catalogue or library of supporting documents is being developed by the British Society of Echocardiography (BSE), to be made available to any participating department. A mechanism and online infrastructure for (optional) national registration or assessment is being developed, to be used as a standalone adjunct or linked to BSE Departmental Accreditation. The principles that underpin the EQF may be applied to other imaging disciplines and, ultimately, other medical or surgical specialties.

United Kingdom standards for non-invasive cardiac imaging: recommendations from the Imaging Council of the British Cardiovascular Society

“…This document supports departments adopting an Imaging Quality Framework along the lines of the originally developed process for echo by the BSE and described as the Echo Quality Framework (EQF, figure 2 ) 5. This brings together many of these themes, and links them in a continuous cycle aimed at improving all aspects of the service including echocardiographic imaging quality, reproducibility, education and training and customer (patient or referrer) satisfaction.…”

Paired surveys for patients and physiologists in echocardiography: a single-centre experience

“…This is especially relevant for an investigation as useful, ubiquitous and important as TTE. Whilst the BSE now recommends patient surveys in all echocardiography departments, in reality this practice is rare, the practicalities of doing so are still being explored, and this is the first publication to discuss the feasibility and results of such a survey (4, 5). We hope that by sharing our experience, we support other centres in implementing the various domains of the BSE Echocardiography Quality Framework locally.…”

“…The main strength of this study is that it demonstrates the feasibility of the prospective collection of paired, matched, anonymous patient and physiologist surveys in a typically busy echocardiography department. This practical, real-world case study builds on recent discussions of the theoretical and hypothetical advantages of implementing the various domains of the BSE Echocardiography Quality Framework (4, 5). Our study is also in line with these publications as it is holistic, scalable, adaptable and multi-disciplinary in nature (4, 5).…”

“…This practical, real-world case study builds on recent discussions of the theoretical and hypothetical advantages of implementing the various domains of the BSE Echocardiography Quality Framework (4, 5). Our study is also in line with these publications as it is holistic, scalable, adaptable and multi-disciplinary in nature (4, 5). The surveys we distributed were well received and largely completed in full.…”

“…The BSE recognises that in busy TTE departments this can be ‘ difficult and time consuming ’, and whilst similar modalities have been studied, there is no literature discussing the feasibility and results of patient satisfaction surveys in TTE (2, 3). Furthermore, whilst the theoretical and hypothetical benefits of implementing the BSE framework have recently been reviewed, there are no published accounts of real-world attempts to implement the BSE Echocardiography Quality Framework in an echocardiography department (4, 5). The combining of patient feedback and physiologist feedback across successive TTE studies for the purposes of research and quality improvement is also novel.…”