Echocardiography physicians and technicians provide a variety of noninvasive imaging services for the diagnosis and treatment of congenital, ischemic, structural and valvular heart disease.
Posted April 13, 2011
The Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories has granted accreditation to the Adult Echocardiography Laboratory at UC Davis Medical Center in recognition of the lab’s commitment to patient care and high-quality diagnostic testing. UC Davis is one of only two hospitals in Sacramento to achieve this accreditation.
“The evaluations conducted in our echo lab are vital to detecting and tracking cardiovascular irregularities,” said William Bommer, a UC Davis professor of cardiovascular medicine and director of noninvasive services. “We are very proud of the state-of-the-art services we provide in helping patients manage — and overcome — heart disease.”
UC Davis echocardiography physicians and technicians provide a variety of noninvasive imaging services for the diagnosis and treatment of congenital, ischemic, structural and valvular heart disease. Utilizing state-of-the-art sonography technology — including three-dimensional trans-thoracic and trans-esophageal, intra-cardiac and contrast-enhanced echocardiography — the team conducts nearly 12,000 rest and stress exams each year.
Echocardiography facilities volunteer to participate in the commission's accreditation program, which evaluates factors such as physician and sonographer training and experience, interpretive and technical abilities, and diagnostic accuracy. Accreditation from the commission is a “seal of approval” that patients can rely on as an indication that the facility has been carefully critiqued on all aspects of its operations considered relevant by medical experts in the field of echocardiography.
About UC Davis Medical Center
UC Davis Medical Center is a comprehensive academic medical center where clinical practice, teaching and research converge to advance human health. Centers of excellence include the National Cancer Institute-designated UC Davis Cancer Center; the region's only level 1 pediatric and adult trauma centers; the UC Davis MIND Institute, devoted to finding treatments and cures for neurodevelopmental disorders; and the UC Davis Children's Hospital.
The medical center serves a 33-county, 65,000-square-mile area that stretches north to the Oregon border and east to Nevada. It further extends its reach through an award-winning telemedicine program, which gives remote, medically underserved communities throughout California unprecedented access to specialty and subspecialty care. For more information, visit www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/medicalcenter.
“UC Davis has always been a leader in bringing the latest echo technology to our community and has contributed to advances that have significantly improved the quality of echo images,” said Bommer. “The new accreditation is an acknowledgment of our team’s continued commitment to our field and to quality patient care.”
The Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories was established with the support of the American Society of Echocardiography, the American College of Cardiology and the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography to provide a peer review mechanism to encourage and recognize the provision of quality echocardiographic diagnostic evaluations by a process of voluntary accreditation. A nonprofit organization, the commission is dedicated to ensuring high-quality patient care and to promoting health care. When scheduled for an echocardiography test, patients are encouraged to inquire as to the accreditation status of the facility where their examination will be performed. For more information, visit http://www.icael.org/icael/index.htm.