Emergency Ultrasound Standard Reporting Guidelines:
Introduction and Statement of Purpose Developed by members of the ACEP Emergency Ultrasound Section These guidelines represent the product of a working group that was formed based on discussions at the Industry Roundtable subcommittee of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Emergency Ultrasound Section. The impetus for these guidelines emerged from discussions with emergency ultrasound leaders and industry, both ultrasound manufacturers and electronic medical record (EMR) companies that indicated a need for a more structured method to report and communicate the findings of point-of-care emergency ultrasound (POCUS).
This document serves as a resource to clinicians with a wide range of experience, and as such may contain fields or terms that may not be appropriate in all situations or by all clinicians. It is important to note that these guidelines in no way represent required elements of reporting. In fact, in general these guidelines err on the side of including more fields than may be used by most emergency physicians, and it is expected that many fields may remain unused depending on the situations. The elements that are BOLDED represent the core emergency ACEP views, findings and interpretations for each application.
The purpose of these guidelines is to define fields that may be helpful for POCUS in a consistent order, with consistent definitions, and in a method that may be easily coded into electronic communications and computer databases. The goal of this document is to accurately report the findings that commonly result from an ultrasound performed by a clinician in the emergency department and to avoid confusion with reports
generated by other specialties. These guidelines may be used to work with existing reporting structures such as DICOM and initiatives through the Integrated Health Enterprise (IHE) to develop consistent non-proprietary methods of reporting and communicating POCUS examination findings.