Development of standards for the provision of children’s population with ultrasound examinations.

Ultrasound examination is the most popular among other diagnostic methods. In pediatrics, ultrasound diagnostics has additional advantages due to its painlessness and lack of radiation exposure. However, there are a number of problems in regulating the activities of ultrasound diagnostics offices and departments, namely the standards for providing the children’s population with ultrasound examinations both for children’s city clinics and for children’s hospitals. These indicators are necessary for planning ultrasound activities in pediatrics and monitoring the availability of ultrasound in pediatric medical organizations. To calculate the indicator of the provision of ultrasound services to the child population, annual reports of ultrasound examination rooms and departments in 13 pediatric medical organizations in Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny, including 10 clinics and 3 hospitals, were analyzed. The annual number of ultrasound scans was compared to the size of the attached child population (for clinics) and the number of hospitalized patients (for hospitals). It turned out that the number of ultrasound scans varies significantly in different clinics. The average number of ultrasound scans per year in the clinic was calculated – the coverage of the child population in ultrasound, which amounted to 918 ultrasound scans per 1000 children’s population in the clinic, and in the hospital there are 114–390 ultrasound scans per 100 hospitalized patients. Using the presented algorithm for calculating the need for ultrasound in a children’s hospital and in a children’s clinic, it becomes possible to plan the activities of ultrasound diagnostic rooms and departments in pediatrics, and the ability to control the availability of ultrasound examinations for children.