The time required to perform pediatric transthoracic echocardiographic studies

The purpose of this study was to determine the time required to perform and evaluate transthoracic pediatric echocardiographic procedures by two groups of pediatric cardiologists; one group was university based and the other group was based in a private practice. Methods consisted of measuring five periods including technician preparation time, technician procedure time, physician imaging time, physician review and reporting time, and physician time in interpretation of the results of the study to the parent or patient. The study evaluated data for 200 studies for the university-based group (all of which were complete studies) and 193 studies for the private practice group (84% of which were complete studies and the remainder were partial studies). Eleven pediatric cardiologists participated in the study. Although some variations in physician imaging and review time were encountered, data demonstrated that mean total physician time for a complete echocardiographic study was 31.9 minutes for both groups. Mean total technical time for complete studies was 42.4 minutes for the private group and 40.9 minutes for the university group. These are the first data evaluating the technical and physician work durations for pediatric echocardiography.