Emergency department ultrasound services by emergency physicians: model for gaining hospital approval.

We anticipate that over the next few years, emergency physician use of emergency department ultrasound will become the standard of care. However, many EDs are hampered in their efforts to gain hospital approval for emergency physician use of ultrasound because of the lack of publicized information regarding the goals of such use, the scope of emergency physician ultrasound privileges, emergency physician ultrasound credentialing criteria, and ED ultrasound quality-improvement plans. In this article we address these issues and provide an example of a proposal used successfully to gain hospital approval for ED use of ultrasound by emergency physicians.