Ultrasound QA in Northern Ireland: Experiences and challenges faced during a new service roll out
By Joyce Joy, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
Background
The Regional Medical Physics Service in Northern Ireland started a new ultrasound physics support service in 2019. This abstract summarises the experiences and challenges faced during the roll out. A few cases of repetitive faults on similar probes are presented. Cases of unusual faults and experiences with interactions with manufacturers are discussed further.
Methods
NI has five main healthcare trusts and there are 22 hospitals with specific radiology departments. An up-todate inventory of all ultrasound scanners which belonged to any screening programmes such as BSP, AAA and Fetal Anomaly and of all radiology scanners was established and acceptance and baseline testing was initiated on these scanners.
Results and Discussion
Approximately 35% (39/111) of all probes tested had faults. 70% (7/10) of a particular probe from Manufacturer A were found to be faulty and needed replacement. Cable fault, shattered crystal and increased number of drop outs were some of the major faults repeatedly noticed. Several probes of a similar kind from Manufacturer B were rejected due to similar damage to the surface coating [Fig 1] making it impossible to clean adequately, hence presenting a cross contamination risk. Rare faults such as variation in the lens thickness [Fig 2], axial bandings, improper functioning of speckle reduction imaging [Fig 3], washed out appearance of images [Fig 4] were also noticed.