It demonstrates a commitment to quality care.

The purpose of the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories (ICAEL) is "to ensure high quality patient care and to promote health care by providing a mechanism to encourage and recognize the provision of quality echocardiographic diagnostic evaluations by a process of voluntary accreditation." Through the accreditation process, laboratories assess every aspect of daily operation and its impact on the quality of health care provided to patients. While completing the accreditation application, laboratories often identify and correct potential problems, revising protocols and validating quality assurance programs. Because accreditation is renewed every three years, a long-term commitment to quality and self-assessment is developed and maintained. Laboratories may use ICAEL accreditation as the foundation to create and achieve realistic quality care goals.

It provides a confidential peer-review.

Designed to serve laboratories as an educational tool, ICAEL accreditation is made up of two crucial steps. First, laboratories conduct a detailed self-evaluation using The Standards and the application. Completion of the application requires detailed information on all aspects of laboratory operation as well as the submission of actual case studies for review. The case studies are crucial in determining the laboratory's compliance with The Standards, and are the basis for judgment of the quality of work that laboratories perform. Once the self-evaluation is completed, the documents and case studies are reviewed by the ICAEL Board Of Directors. All aspects of the review are confidential.

It's a recruiting tool.

Accredited laboratories can use their accreditation as a recruiting tool to attract the best and brightest physicians and sonographers. Talented professionals look for high-quality programs, and accreditation assures potential employees that a laboratory is dedicated to achieving the highest standards for patient care.

It's intersocietal.

The ICAEL is a nonprofit organization established with the support of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE), the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (SDMS), and the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography (SOPE). Representatives from these sponsoring organizations, including physicians and sonographers, serve on the ICAEL Board Of Directors. All areas of echocardiography were represented during the creation of The Standards for accreditation, and all areas continue to steer the accreditation process.

It's proven successful.

The ICAEL was created using the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL) as a model. The ICAVL, in its second decade offering accreditation, has accredited more than 1600 vascular laboratories, and Medicare reimbursement for vascular laboratories in a majority of states hinges on either laboratory accreditation or technologist certification. Following the pattern of the ICAVL's success, the ICAEL has accredited approximately 2200 echocardiography laboratories and nearly 3400 sites to date, and several payment policies are now linked to ICAEL accreditation. Both the ICAEL and ICAVL, along with the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories (ICANL), the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Magnetic Resonance Laboratories (ICAMRL), and the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Computed Tomography Laboratories (ICACTL), are members of the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC).