Jessica is a Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer in the Harrison County Hospital Diagnostic Imaging Center. Jessica completes echocardiograms for our patients. An echocardiogram uses ultrasound to create images of the heart, allowing doctors to evaluate how well the heart is functioning. It can help diagnose conditions such as heart failure, blood clots, and heart valve disease. The test produces live images that show blood flow through the heart and its valves.
Several years ago, Jessica was the department’s only Echo Tech. Although Harrison County Hospital offered echocardiograms five days a week, there was a need for another trained staff member to provide coverage when Jessica was unavailable. McKenzie, a registered ultrasound technologist, expressed an interest in learning to perform echocardiograms. Her options were to attend an echo program in Southern Indiana or receive on-the-job training from Jessica. Because these programs are often highly competitive and expensive, McKenzie completed her training with Jessica and became qualified to help fill coverage gaps.
More recently, Ian, a radiology technologist assistant in the Diagnostic Imaging department, approached Diagnostic Imaging Manager Jamie about opportunities to cross-train in echocardiography. Jamie recognized Ian’s potential and saw an opportunity to expand weekend echo coverage. This would allow the hospital to complete these important exams sooner and keep patients at Harrison County Hospital rather than delaying their care or transferring them elsewhere.
“I trained Ian, who had a bachelor’s degree in general studies, from no heart experience, so we started with the basics,” said Jessica. “Ian had homework every week and quizzes. His training took about nine months to a year, and Ian picked it up very quickly. I was really proud of how fast he was able to pick up scanning.”
With his training complete and now performing echocardiograms independently, Ian plans to obtain his echo registry through the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS).
Jamie, Diagnostic Imaging Manager, said, “This team is amazing. We can now provide echocardiograms seven days a week at the hospital. This is much better for our patients because it allows us to keep their care close to home and complete these important studies more quickly. Our doctors are also pleased to have the results available sooner.”
The department typically performs approximately six echocardiograms each day, with each study taking 45–60 minutes. So far this year, the team has completed 800 echocardiograms.
The team emphasized that cross-training employees to perform these studies is important because, first and foremost, they want to do what is best for the community.
“We have a great team,” Jessica said. “I feel comfortable knowing that Ian has McKenzie’s and my back by performing these vital studies on the weekends.”
(Pictured left to right: McKenzie, Ian, Jessica)