How Ultrasound Can Help You Reach New Heights as a Clinician

Healthcare providers, by nature, consistently strive to elevate diagnosis, treatment, and the overall patient experience. In the primary care field, where clinicians often have to refer patients to specialists as a matter of clinical protocol, the need to enrich patient-provider engagement is especially strong. More than 95 percent of clinicians in this space wish they could do more to help their patients stay well and prevent health problems.¹  

One of the most immediate and effective ways clinicians can start to realize these aspirations and reach new heights as care providers is by offering ultrasound services in their offices. Integrating ultrasound into their menu of services helps primary care clinicians enrich the patient-provider experience and grow their practices by expanding their scope of capabilities. Let’s talk about how.  

The Peace of Mind of Faster Answers  

Patients want answers now, and their clinicians want to be able to provide them. Wait times for specialist appointments exceed three weeks on average² in the United States and can be even longer in other health systems worldwide.³ These delays not only create further patient anxiety and irritation but also allow potentially life-threatening conditions to escalate even more while patients wait for imaging.  

Ironically, however, family medicine is one of the only areas of medicine in which appointment wait times haven’t increased. By offering expedited and accurate ultrasounds in their offices, primary care clinicians can not only comfort their patients but also help them develop a faster and more proactive treatment plan, if necessary.  

Physicians themselves also benefit from integrating ultrasounds into their practices. In-office ultrasound helps doctors increase their diagnostic confidence and be more effective care providers at every stage of treatment.  

More Direct Involvement in Patient Compliance 

There’s no denying that patients have an “adherence problem” when it comes to additional testing and follow-up. One of the most unfortunate byproducts of extended patient wait times is that they often result in what is called “referral leakage” or lack of follow-through with appointments. Some data indicates that just under 35 percent of specialty referral appointments result in a documented visit.⁴ When it comes to imaging appointments, specifically, nearly a quarter of patients miss their appointments primarily due to voluntary cancellation.⁵ 

There are various reasons why a patient may miss their ultrasound appointment, including financial and logistical barriers, frustration with wait times and red tape, and general anxiety. These concerns - and the risk of patients being lost to follow-up - can be significantly reduced when clinicians offer same-day ultrasound during office visits.

In a climate in which primary care clinicians have been expressing frustration over their patients’ lack of referral follow-through for decades,⁶ they have more of an opportunity than ever to begin closing the gap in patient care by closing the loop in provider journeys. Offering in-office ultrasound gives them decidedly more oversight and assurance that their patients are receiving the recommended imaging tests in a timely fashion.  

Opening New Avenues for Care and Subsequent Growth  

Another item high on the primary care clinician’s wish list is the ability to treat more conditions and meet the evolving needs of their patient populations. Offering ultrasound allows them to diagnose, identify, and potentially treat a wider array of conditions.⁷ It also helps them take a more active role in the health issues that affect their current patients throughout their lives, such as childbirth, injury, and aging. This helps strengthen patient-provider bonds and positions primary healthcare providers as even more powerful fixtures in their patients’ journeys.  

The ability to scan for more conditions also helps primary care physicians achieve new financial heights, creating more revenue opportunities and expanding patient outreach.  

Choosing the Right System to Launch You to New Heights 

Of course, primary care providers face barriers when integrating ultrasound into their offices, including budget issues, learning curves, time for training, and many more. For newer or first-time ultrasound users with more limited financial resources, it’s imperative that their system is user-friendly, budget-friendly, and adaptable. 

GE HealthCare’s Versana family of ultrasound systems was designed with primary care clinicians in mind to help them quickly, efficiently, and effectively start leveraging ultrasound to benefit their patients and practices.  

Offering multiple tiers of products to fit any practice model and budget, combined with intuitive scanning and workflow features for first-time users - and backed by GE HealthCare’s unmatched service and reliability - the Versana Ultrasound Family empowers primary care providers to deliver higher-quality care, reduce patient wait times, and expand diagnostic capabilities. By integrating ultrasound into the office, clinicians can provide faster answers, improve patient satisfaction, and strengthen their role as trusted partners in health.

Give your patients the peace of mind they deserve while continuing to grow your potential as a care provider and expanding your practice for years to come.