Echotech and Eden Valley PBC Group

Echotech has partnered with Eden Valley PBC to establish an open access breathlessness clinic operating from the Penrith Community Hospital, Cumbria.

The aim of the service is the efficient diagnosis and treatment of patients with heart failure within the primary care setting. This model of delivery is in line with Department of Health policy and the vision for the NHS laid out by Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review.

The key targets are the early detection and treatment of CHF and to reduce re-admission rates for those patients with an existing diagnosis of CHF. Central to such a service is the provision of primary care based diagnostic tests; one of which is transthoracic echocardiography (Echo).

Echocardiography has an exclusive diagnostic value in assessing the type (systolic or diastolic), the cause (valvular disorder, prior myocardial infarction, dilated cardiomyopathy etc) and severity of heart failure.

Echotech, a provider of community echo services, was approached by the PBC Group to be involved in an initial 6 month pilot study of the open access breathlessness clinic.

Echotech is uniquely placed to provide the high quality diagnostic service, as it is the only national provider which carries Departmental Accreditation awarded by the British Society of Echocardiography. Echotech employs stringent quality assurance mechanisms specifically tailored to the “field based” nature of its diagnostic services and provides an image archive service which negates the need for the re-scanning of patients by local acute services.

Echotech is able to supply these services on a per case basis, offering greater value for money over setting up such a service from scratch to include capital expenditure for hardware and recruitment.