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Quality Assurance: Breast Ultrasound (Revised 3-3-23)

Revision History


Examinations should be systematically reviewed and evaluated as part of the overall quality improvement program at the facility. Monitoring should include evaluation of the accuracy of interpretation as well as the appropriateness of the examination. Complications and adverse events or activities that may have the potential for sentinel events must be monitored, analyzed and reported as required, and periodically reviewed in order to identify opportunities to improve patient care. These data should be collected in a manner that complies with statutory and regulatory peer-review procedures in order to ensure the confidentiality of the peer-review process. The ACR's Breast Ultrasound Quality Assurance Questionnaire is attached below.

 

Physician Peer-Review Requirements 

All sites initially applying for ACR accreditation and all sites renewing their accreditation must actively participate in a physician peer review program. Sites may develop their own peer review program, use a vendor product, or use RADPEER, a peer review process developed by the ACR. Sites not using RADPEER must use a program that includes the following: 

  • A double reading (2 MDs interpreting the same study) assessment

  • Allows for random selection of studies to be reviewed on a regularly-scheduled basis

  • Reviews exams and procedures representative of the actual clinical practice of each physician

  • Reviewer assessment of the agreement of the original report with subsequent review (or with surgical or pathological findings)

  • Classification of peer review findings with regard to level of quality concerns (one example is a 4-point scoring scale)

  • Policies and procedures for action to be taken on significantly discrepant peer review findings for the purpose of achieving quality outcomes improvement

  • Summary statistics and comparisons for each physician by imaging modality

  • Summary data for each facility/practice by modality.


The Ultrasound-Guided Breast Biopsy Module is exempt from this requirement because outcomes are monitored as part of accreditation and physician peer review applies only to review of image interpretation.


Outcome Data – Ultrasound-Guided Breast Biopsy Accreditation Module Only

Each facility applying for the Ultrasound-Guided Breast Biopsy Module must submit outcome data. Although the ACR does not currently use this information as pass/fail criteria, it may be used in the future to help set criteria. The minimum data elements to be collected are:

  • Total number of procedures

  • Total number of cancers found

  • Total number of benign lesions

  • Total number of ultrasound-guided biopsies needing repeat biopsy, categorized by reason and type of biopsy (i.e., CNB, FNAC):


Reason for Repeat Biopsy

Data

Insufficient Sample

  • Total number of cases

  • Number with repeat biopsy performed by core

  • Number with repeat biopsy performed by excision

Discordance with Imaging

  • Total number of cases

  • Number with repeat biopsy performed by core

  • Number with repeat biopsy performed by excision

Cellular Atypia, Radial Scar

  • Total number of cellular atypia cases

  • Total number of radial scar cases (CNB only)

  • Number with repeat biopsy performed by core

  • Number with repeat biopsy performed by excision

Other

  • Total number of cases

  • Number with repeat biopsy performed by core

  • Number with repeat biopsy performed by excision


  • Complications categorized by type of biopsy (i.e., CNB, FNAC)

    1. Total number

    2. Number with hematoma (requiring intervention) 

    3. Number with infection 

    4. Number with pneumothorax (CNB only)


The ACR strongly recommends that the biopsy report include a statement referring to the pathology results, imaging/pathologic concordance, and follow-up recommendations based on pathology results. The ACR will review a facility’s biopsy reports as part of a validation site visit.



Revision History for this Article

Date

Section

Description of Revision(s)

12-12-19

All

Article created; FAQs incorporated; No criteria changes

11-15-2022


Added QA Questionnaire attachment 

3-3-2023


Updated QA Questionnaire attachment



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