A concise guide to support hospital clinicians, sonographers and service managers to make clear, consistent and patient-centred decisions on the urgency and appropriateness of echocardiograms has been shared by the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme.
Increasing demand for inpatient transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) led GIRFT to develop the standardised framework to guide prioritisation, which aligns with British Society of Echocardiography (BSE) recommendations and national standards.
The guide aims to:
- Promote timely access to echocardiography for patients who need it most.
- Prevent unnecessary or low-value imaging.
- Facilitate communication between referrers and echocardiography teams.
- Ensure efficient use of healthcare resources without compromising clinical quality.
An echocardiogram, or ‘echo’, is a diagnostic test which uses ultrasound to produce images of the heart and nearby blood vessels. Effective triage of inpatient echocardiography referrals is critical to ensure timely diagnosis, optimise patient outcomes to ensure that echocardiography resources are allocated responsibly.
The GIRFT guide offers structured triage categories, visual aids and clinical criteria, but also stresses that it should be used alongside clinical judgement and local pathways, and that individualised care decisions are essential.
