Faxing ECGs from peripheral hospitals to tertiary paediatric cardiology units--is it safe and sustainable?

[corrected] Recent local involvement with the United Kingdom"Safe and Sustainable review of paediatric cardiology services" has highlighted the need for development of clinical networks and improvement of the communication infrastructure within and between teams. One common communication between peripheral and tertiary hospitals is facsimile transfer of electrocardiograms. The quality of fax transmission can be variable, raising concerns regarding the quality of the received image, accuracy of the diagnosis and appropriateness of the resultant advice.

We performed a systematic quality evaluation of faxed ECGs to determine whether they should be replaced on the basis of patient safety and information governance. A sample of 50 ECGs was selected from over 300 which had been faxed to our tertiary department. These were scored according to a structured system leading to a 10 point Likert scale, assessing technical quality and the ability to make a clinically relevant assessment of the information.

Only 1 from 50 faxed ECGs fulfilled all 9 objective criteria set. Heart rate and quadrant of the QRS axis were only identifiable in 10%. Comparing the faxed ECGs with the rating given to an original ECG confirmed a significant difference in the interpretability of faxed and original ECGs (p<0.05).

Our study suggests that faxed ECGs do not provide consistent, accurate diagnostic information. It suggests that this currently widespread practice should be considered as a potential patient safety issue within developing paediatric cardiology networks. We would recommend that faxing of ECGs be replaced with scanning of ECGs, transmitted via secure email.