Background

The American Society of Echocardiography Committee on Pediatric Echocardiography Laboratory Productivity was formed in 2011 to study institutional factors that could influence the clinical productivity of physicians and sonographers in academic pediatric echocardiography laboratories. In the previous two surveys, staff clinical productivity remained stable while total echocardiography volumes increased. This third survey was designed to assess how clinical productivity is associated with laboratory infrastructure elements such as training, administrative tasks, quality improvement, research, and use of focused cardiac ultrasound (FCU).

Methods

Survey questions were sent by e-mail to North American laboratories. The aims were to assess (1) educational and training obligations, (2) academic productivity and research, (3) laboratory medical director satisfaction, (4) quality improvement, (5) laboratory leadership roles, and (6) impact and use of FCU. Survey responses were compared with clinical productivity metrics defined in the first two surveys.

Results

There were 38 responses. Academic productivity was higher at institutions with more dedicated imaging personnel, personnel with dedicated protected academic time, and advanced imaging fellows. Academic productivity did not correlate with clinical productivity and was not significantly affected by the presence of dedicated research sonographers. The satisfaction level of laboratory medical directors was related to dedicated administrative time and an administrative stipend. The majority of administrative roles were tasked to the laboratory medical director with support of the technical director. FCU was listed as a hospital privilege at four institutions (13%). Twenty-two (58%) were training FCU providers in one or more subspecialties. FCU was not associated with clinical or academic productivity.

Conclusions

This third survey gathered supplemental data to complement the clinical productivity data collected from the first two surveys. Together, the results of these surveys further describe the range of factors that can affect North American academic pediatric echocardiography laboratories.

中文翻译：

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医师，超声医师和实验室生产率的决定因素：美国超声心动图学会小儿超声心动图实验室生产率委员会的第三次调查分析

背景

美国超声心动图学会儿科超声心动图实验室生产力委员会成立于2011年，旨在研究可能影响学术性超声心动图实验室中医师和超声医师的临床生产率的制度因素。在前两次调查中，员工的临床生产率保持稳定，而超声心动图的总量却增加了。第三次调查旨在评估临床生产力如何与实验室基础设施要素（例如培训，行政任务，质量改进，研究和聚焦心脏超声（FCU）的使用）相关联。

方法

调查问题通过电子邮件发送给北美实验室。目的是评估（1）教育和培训义务，（2）学术生产力和研究，（3）实验室医疗主任的满意度，（4）质量改进，（5）实验室领导角色以及（6）影响和使用FCU。将调查回复与前两次调查中定义的临床生产率指标进行了比较。

结果

共有38条回复。在拥有更多专门成像人员的机构，拥有专门受保护学术时间的人员以及资深成像研究员的机构中，学术生产率更高。学术生产力与临床生产力不相关，并且不受专门研究超声医师的影响。实验室医务主任的满意度水平与专门的行政时间和行政津贴有关。在技​​术总监的支持下，大部分管理角色都被赋予了实验室医学总监的职责。FCU被列为四家机构（13％）的医院特权。22个（58％）正在培训FCU提供者一项或多项专业知识。FCU与临床或学术生产力无关。

结论

第三次调查收集了补充数据，以补充从前两次调查收集的临床生产力数据。总之，这些调查的结果进一步描述了可能影响北美学术儿科超声心动图实验室的因素范围。