Reducing inappropriate transthoracic echocardiography orders in normotensive patients with acute pulmonary embolism in a community hospital: a quality improvement project.

ABSTRACT: Transthoracic echocardiograms (TTEs) have limited value in guiding management of normotensive patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE). Nevertheless, TTEs are frequently ordered inappropriately. This quality improvement project aimed to decrease inappropriate TTE orders by 30% over 6 months in patients with PE admitted to general internal medicine at a community hospital. Two interventions were implemented using successive plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles: educational sessions for physicians and the distribution of TTE-ordering algorithms for triaging of TTE appropriateness. Four audits on TTE orders for inpatients with PE were conducted throughout the project: a pre-intervention audit (pre-audit; March to August 2020), a post-intervention 1 audit (post-I1; August to September 2022), a p

SUBMITTER: Lee D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12548594 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature