Variation of availability and frequency of emergency physician-performed ultrasonography between adult and pediatric patients in the academic emergency department in Korea

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the availability and frequency of emergency physician-performed ultrasonography (USG) in the emergency department (ED) and the status of USG training programs in emergency medicine residencies in academic EDs in Korea. METHODS: In spring 2014, a link to a 16-question, multiple-choice, and rating scale web-based survey was e-mailed to all 97 academic ED residency training directors in Korea. RESULTS: The response rate was 83.5% (81/97). All respondents had their own USG machines in the ED. In total, 82.7% of respondents reported that emergency physician-performed adult USGs were usually conducted daily, whereas only 23.6% performed pediatric USGs daily. Moreover, 55.5% performed pediatric USG fewer than once a week. 74.1% of respondents had education programs for adult USG in residency training, but only 21.0% had programs for pediatric USG. There was a high association between the presence of education programs and the use of USG in both groups. The faculty members who most commonly participated in teaching ED residents how to perform USG were emergency physicians (67.9%). Only 17.3% of respondents reported that they always supported a quality assurance process. The training directors generally agreed with the advantages in emergency physician-performed USGs. CONCLUSION: The availability of ultrasound machines was high both for adult and pediatric EDs. Nevertheless, the frequency of Emergency physician-performed USG for pediatric patients was low, which was related to the lack of the training programs for treating pediatric patients.