What does that mean? If a pneumothorax results from that central line attempt or that thoracentesis and any other procedures with this complication, Medicare will not reimburse for it. In the new issue of SonoSite news, it discusses this and how the tool that could prevent pneumothorax from occurring, if used during your procedures, is the exact tool that is best to diagnose at bedside. How ironic is that?!

“Effective October 1, 2012: If, during the performance of a venous catheterization procedure, the clinician accidentally causes a pneumothorax, Medicare will no longer reimburse the hospital for the extra costs of a resulting pneumothorax (collapsed lung) complication. Continue reading →

AIUM  – an organization that truly is an “institute” that is all about ultrasound – it used to be a community of only radiologists, but over the last few years, as bedside ultrasound has become part of many other specialties, there are now more sections for those specialties to become their own ‘community within a community’ – so to speak. Emergency physicians who are ultrasound enthusiasts, of course, are a growing section within AIUM – and if you ever want to meet every single leader in bedside ultrasound, this is the conference to go to! They also have AIUM and ACEP joint workshops in bedside US and promote research among all specialties. AIUM has been releasing their Practice Guidelines of each application and has recently completed quite a few. Each specialty define their own use of bedside ultrasound, and there are “complete” and “limited” (or “focused”, which may not include every detail listed under the AIUM guideline) scans, but its always nice to see what AIUM considers as their guideline to others. Continue reading →