A survey of ultrasound Quality Assurance implementation in the United Kingdom

In England, Quality Assurance is a legal requirement, regulated by the Care Quality Commission; equipment in use may exhibit only minor deterioration. There is evidence that a significant number of ultrasound transducers in use exhibit major faults and this may lead to suboptimal imaging in a large number of examinations. There is limited evidence suggesting that the uptake of Quality Assurance in the United Kingdom is low; the aim of this study was to gather more information on current Quality Assurance practice.

A questionnaire to establish the level of Quality Assurance in place in National Health Service Hospital Trusts in the United Kingdom was sent by email to 170 National Health Service Chief Executives.

There were 60 responses to the survey from individual National Health Service organisations, only four respondents (7%) indicating that no Quality Assurance was performed in their organisation. Twenty-three percent of respondents conducted only annual Quality Assurance. Eighteen percent of respondents conducted only user Quality Assurance.

In the worst case, if no non-respondents had a Quality Assurance programme, only 33% of National Health Service Trusts in the United Kingdom have a Quality Assurance programme. The true figure will be between 33% and 93%. Annual Quality Assurance alone is insufficient to detect faults in a timely manner and user Quality Assurance alone may not detect more subtle faults. It is easy and straightforward for ultrasound users to perform Quality Assurance every day, in the form of a rapid visual inspection and uniformity assessment before every use.