ULTRASOUND
ROTATION
Rotation Overview:
The Ultrasound rotation at Mercy Health is a 4 week hands experience designed to broaden your understanding of point of care ultrasound
and its applications in the Emergency Department. You will cover obstetric, renal, cardiac, orthopedic, trauma, musculoskeletal and
procedural ultrasound in a variety of applications and gain a basic understanding of the basic fundamentals of point of care ultrasound. You
will also spend time in the ultrasound department learning vascular and cardiac ultrasound techniques.
Scheduling:
Please contact Joesph Betcher MD, the Ultrasound Director, prior to the start of your rotation. He will provide you with your daily schedule and
answer any questions you may have.
Shift Types:
1. Faculty Guided Ultrasound Shift
Shifts in which you will one-on-one with a core faculty member doing point of care ultrasounds in the emergency department. This will be
your time to ask as many questions as possible, and learn the basic of point of care ultrasound in preparation for practice on your solo shift.
2. Solo Ultrasound Shift
Independent scanning days in the Emergency Department. You will scroll through the tracking board for potential educational opportunities
and communicate with the clinical team for that patient to discuss if a bedside ultrasound is appropriate. Any significant findings must be
reported directly to the clinical attending in charge of that patient for confirmatory study. Introduce yourself to the patient and obtain
permission. It is important to emphasize that your examination is for educational purposes only, and will not be billed, and that the patient
may still require additional formal imaging to include another more formal ultrasound. Do not interpret images for the patient, until it has
been discussed with the attending physician.
3. Ultrasound Tech Shift
During this shift, you will spend time with the general ultrasound technician at the Pavilion just west of the Mercy Campus on Sherman.
Please confirm the location of this shift prior to the start of your rotation.
4. Echo/Vascular Lab Shift
During this shift, you will be assigned to spend the day with either the Vascular Ultrasound tech or the Echo tech at the Mercy Campus lab
located in the basement of Mercy Hospital next to the Cath lab family waiting room.
Required Lecture Videos:
You are required to watch the narrated lectures for the 15 topics below. Watching them early in the month will give you a stronger
base to grow from as your rotation progresses. The videos can be accessed above, or can be found here.
1. Aorta
2. Appendix / Bowel / Pyloric Stenosis
3. Biliary / Gallbladder
4. Cardiac / IVC
5. DVT
6. FAST
7. OB/Gyn
8. Ocular
9. Physics
10. Procedural
11. Renal / Bladder
12. Soft Tissue / Musculoskeletal
13. Testicular
14. Thoracic / Airway
15. Vascular Access
Ultrasound QA Process:
You will spend time running through the previous ultrasounds performed in the department, and go through how this QA process works.
Procedure Logs:
You need to keep a log of the ultrasounds that you perform this month, and throughout the remainder of your residency. Credentialing
standards are always changing in our field, but with the new combination of ACGME/AOA, residents will need to log 150 scans throughout
their residency. As long as you're keeping track, and this should be no problem at all.
Required Resource:
Free iTunes Textbook:
Joe Betcher, M.D.
Emergency Ultrasound Director
Lake Michigan Emergency Specialists
Mercy Health Muskegon
Ultrasound in FOAM
