Ultrasound training a bit unsound

J. Craig Anderson

Monday, Oct. 3, 2005 | 8:21 a.m.

The popularity of ultrasound scans to detect everything from heart disease to the sex of an unborn child has created a booming industry for technicians who can perform the painless, noninvasive procedure.

But some Nevada educational leaders warn that the state's lack of clear standards for sonography training requires patients -- and aspiring ultrasound practitioners -- to make sure they are dealing with qualified professionals.

For the second time in less than a year, students at a medical sonography school in Las Vegas have complained they did not receive sufficient training to meet the industry's educational standards.

According to complaints filed at the end of September with the Nevada Commission on Postsecondary Education by two former students of the American Institute of Medical Sonography, instructors were not preparing students as promised for certification by a recognized industry association.

The course took 50 weeks and cost $15,000.

The complaints mirror those made against another sonography school -- Western Technical Institute -- late last year.

The Commission on Postsecondary Education revoked Western Technical's license in December and ordered the school to reimburse tuition to former students after determining its curriculum fell short of requirements for graduate certification.

Postsecondary commission administrator David Perlman said Tuesday that he doesn't think American Institute violated any laws or regulations and that the school already has agreed to fully reimburse tuition costs to the students who complained.

American Institute officials did not return repeated phone calls during the past week, but Perlman said the school also is reviewing its curriculum and plans to extend the current program an extra six months at no extra cost to students, in order to provide more classroom and clinical training.

But Janice Glasper, director of the state's only nationally accredited sonography program, at the Community College of Southern Nevada, said it is all too common for graduates of small, independent schools to struggle when it comes to maintaining employment.

"They don't have any problem until they start to work for a short period of time, and then the employer finds that they don't have the skills they should have," said Glasper, who is also an ultrasound technologist at University Medical Center.

She said medical institutions occasionally will hire graduates of such schools, but the industry is moving toward requiring all sonographers to be registered with the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography, which requires that applicants either come from an accredited school or have years of on-the-job training.

Some states already require all ultrasound technicians to be registered, but state Board of Education member Gary Waters said Nevada is behind the curve when it comes to regulating the profession.

"There are really not any state guidelines on who can and cannot be a sonographer," Waters said. "What's lacking here is that virtually anybody can buy an X-ray machine and say that they do sonography."

Waters said he thinks the state Board of Medical Examiners should set the standards for training and the Commission on Postsecondary Education should enforce them.

Still, inconsistencies in the quality of ultrasound training are a problem nationwide, said Kathleen Megivern, executive director of the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.

"I cannot tell you the number of calls we get every week from students who have spent thousands of dollars only to discover -- too late -- that they won't be able to sit for certification exams," she said.

While the vast majority of ultrasound schools are legitimate, there is "something about this particular area that seems to attract a few very dishonest people," Megivern said.

"We had a sonography school in Florida that claimed they were accredited by the 'Commission on Accreditation of Health Education Programs' -- leaving only the word 'Allied' from the title," she said.

"Last I knew, that guy was in prison because when the Florida authorities raided the place, they found that all of the equipment had been stolen."