Sponsored by Summit Imaging
Every physician and sonographer understands the importance of image quality when performing ultrasound exams. Without a high-quality image, identifying abnormalities is not only difficult, but also less reliable. This makes image quality critically important for proper diagnosis and to guide patient care.
This global pandemic is a challenging time, especially for health care facilities that are navigating a massive amount of uncertainty from the halting of elective procedures to hallways overflowing with patients. Health care facilities are aggressively searching for ways to effectively extend the life of their equipment by partnering strategically with domain experts that repair equipment to an electronic component level.
A strategy that is now common for health care facilities is to utilize transducer repair services to avoid costly replacements. To give perspective, a basic repair of a transducer can cost as little as 5% of the replacement price. With this potentially large savings, health care facilities are now consistently attempting to have their faulty transducer repaired at a fraction of the cost of a replacement. This extraordinarily low-risk strategy typically produces high reward savings. The old service model was to replace the transducer at a high replacement price. The new strategy of attempting the repair first and, if the device can be repaired, massive replacement costs are avoided. This method guarantees the attempt to save on transducer life cycle cost at virtually no risk to health care facilities.
There are certain transducer operating states that sonographers and clinical engineers can look for to identify anything out of the ordinary. Any image noise and color artifact, such as unintended variation in the brightness, color, saturation, or contrast of an image, is cause for suspicion. Some signs clearly indicate an equipment problem, such as image distortion (rearranged material) or color stripes or noise in a non-physiologic pattern. In extreme cases, an image may appear too bright/white or too dark – a sure sign of malfunction. The most difficult problem is when a change is subtle. The sonographer must then decide whether the artifact is clinically feasible or not – in other words, whether it is due to patient pathology or data error. Dropout (missing signal) in the image is a good example. Ultrasound is famous for having dropouts, but judgment and experience are required to determine whether the dropout observed is unnatural. The objective is to identify if there is any missing image data or if there is excess data or noise that is present in the image. The missing or excess data are likely failures in the electronics of the transducer and can often be repaired.
Once a problem is identified, clinical engineers and hospital administrators are now commonly considering a repair of faulty ultrasound transducers. The cost of repairing faulty equipment is much lower than the alternative cost of replacement and is a fruitful savings opportunity with virtually no risk. If the transducer is repaired, there is a significant savings. However, if the damage is beyond repair, a replacement would be necessary. Opting to repair first rather than immediately replace the technology can maximize its useful life and save health care facilities as much as 95 percent relative to the cost of original equipment manufacturer replacements. Reputable ultrasound transducer repair facilities such as Summit Imaging perform at high levels with successful repair yields ranging from 50 to 90 percent success depending on the transducer application type. Partnerships with health care facilities have dramatically lowered total cost of ownership on ultrasound transducers. During this chaotic pandemic for health care facilities, it has become a vital strategy for cost savings and patient care improvements.
