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A: A physician has the responsibility to supervise all office personnel, including technical staff, regardless of specialty or practice area. If the physician lacks familiarity with the technical aspects of a staff member’s work, providing the necessary level of supervision becomes more difficult. Providing staff with access to technical expertise, consulting services, and continuing clinical education would be a good start. However, ultrasound techs are not licensed to interpret the examinations that they perform. At first glance, your practice might not appear to be unreasonable. After all, you hired a fully-trained and licensed ultrasonography technologist to perform the ultrasound exams. However, there are inherent risks with your practice. The technologist’s licensure and training qualify her to perform the exam according to your prescription, but not to interpret the exams. If you choose to offer examinations in your office that you are not qualified to interpret, you should take steps to insure that such exams are interpreted by properly trained and licensed individuals, i.e., a radiologist. Your failure to do so may result in liability for an incomplete or inaccurately-interpreted exam. For example, such a scenario might arise if you or your technologist misses an abnormality on the exam. Naturally, you wish to minimize any inconvenience for your patients by providing the option for inhouse exams. But, you have professional and legal duties to insure that ultrasound exams both are performed by qualified persons, as well as interpreted by qualified physicians.
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