The UK's leading provider of Community Echocardiography

A BSE Accredited Department • Independent Sector Member of THE NHS CONFEDERATION • ISO 9001 Registered Firm

  Home Study Archive Ensuring Quality NHS Developments Support for GP's News Staff Room Job Opportunities  

Overview

The Need

The Benefits

The Service

The Technology

Value Model

Key Messages

Useful Links

Contact Us

User name 
Password 

ISO 9001
Established in
March 2001

A BSE Accredited Department

Member The NHS Confederation


Echotech Key Messages

For Delivering Quality

Echotech is a BSE Accredited Department

The Echotech service complies with key elements in the BSE guidance 'Community Echocardiography for Heart Failure'11

All Echotech Clinical Governance is overseen by our Clinical Lead - Consultant Cardiologist Echocardiography Specialist

Hand held echocardiography systems are an accurate and reproducible screening technique for the assessment of LVSD in the community1

Community echocardiography gives comparable results to traditional hospital echocardiography for left ventricular dysfunction and for significant valvular disease detection9

Community echocardiography will secure the local, early and accurate diagnosis of cardiac abnormalities

Community echocardiography will allow risk stratification - early identification of those patients requiring specialist assessment

Improved access to echocardiography may result in higher rates of optimal pharmacological intervention2

Improved pharmacological intervention (with ACE inhibitors and Beta blockers) will result in decreases in morbidity, mortality and hospital admissions3,4

Echotech delivers a pathway of care designed around patient needs (reduced waiting time to diagnosis, closer to patient's home)

Echotech will support healthcare professionals deliver CHD NSF standard 11 and the PPF target (heart failure) and to help implement the NICE guideline for heart failure

Echotech will support new GMS contract 'the percentage of patients with a diagnosis of CHD and LV dysfunction which has been confirmed by an echocardiogram'

Echotech's service reflects several of the themes in the NHS Next Stage Review. For example, 'All the visions emphasised the importance of rapid access to diagnostics in convenient locations'10

For Delivering Value

The Echotech pathway represents a saving of 61.2% over the Traditional Consultant Outpatient pathway, and a saving of 11.1% over the Hospital-based Open Access Model13

Echotech depolys single Echo 'units', equipment and staff, across institutional boundaries and therefore allows resources to be shared between commissioning organisations

Echotech's tariff per scan is substantially less than the NHS 'non-mandatory' price for an echo14

Community echocardiography has a significant sparing effect on specialist referrals (increase NHS capacity)5,6 Approximately 60% of people referred directly for specialist assessment are not subsequently diagnosed with heart failure12

Community echocardiography provides a more efficient 'lean' method of working via reduced inappropriate secondary care attendances, reduction in outpatient appointments and more efficient and appropriate use of specialist teams

Open access echocardiography allows avoidance of inappropriate treatment7

Echotech service is highly responsive to the evolving NHS and reflects several recent Department of Health policy developments. For example, Payment by Results, Practice Based Commissioning and the 18 Week RTT Target

The most cost effective strategy to screen for LVSD in community subjects is natriuretic peptide or ECG pre screening prior to hand held echocardiography prior to traditional echocardiography8

Echotech service model allows Cardiology online access to reports and images

1. R Senior, G Galasko, J V McMurray, J Mayet. Heart 2003;89(Suppl III):iii24-iii28
2. S Lillis, J Vickers. Assessment and treatment of heart failure in general practice. http:www.priory.com/fam/heart.htm
3. CIBIS II. The cardiac insufficiency bisoprolol study II: a randomised trial. Lancet 1999;353:9-13
4. SOLVD investigators. Effect of enalapril on survival in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and congestive heart failure. NEng J Med 1991;325:293-302
5. Echocardiography in primary care: evaluating an open access service. Vanessa Catterall. www.somerset-health.org.uk/pdf/ha_reports/ echocardiography.pdf
6. E Southall. Mayfield Medical Centre, Paignton. Cardiac diagnostic service in general practice.
7. Francis CM, et al. Open access echocardiography in management of heart failure in the community. BMJ 1995;310:634-636
8. Senior, R et al. What is the most cost effective strategy to screen for left ventricular systolic dysfunction: natriuretic peptides, the electrocardiogram, hand held echocardiography, traditional echocardiography, or their combination? European Heart Journal (2006) 27,193-200
9. Jeyaseelan, S et al. Postgraduate Medical Journal 2005; 81:777-779
10. High quality care for all. NHS next stage review final report. DH June 2008
11. Community echocardiography for heart failure. Br.JCardiol. 2004;11:399-402
12. NICE Commissioning Guideline (Heart Failure) 2008
13. Echotech Value Model 15.06.09
14. Payment by Results Guidance for 2009/10. Non-mandatory price for transthoracic echocardiogram

 

 

 

Latest news