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

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 qua...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Navroz Masani
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2018-11-01
Series:Echo Research and Practice
Subjects:
Online Access:https://erp.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/echo/5/4/ERP-18-0052.xml
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:2055-0464
2055-0464