[Dysphagia] How many speech pathologists in the room during the swallow study

[krd at ameritech.net (Kurt R. Daniels)]

Maria
   
  First off, I am not aware of any "standards" with respect to this issue.  
   
  As for my situation, I have to say that I work in a rather unique setting - albeit somewhat antiquated in terms of the equipment utilized in our radiology department as compared to the typical hospital.  None the less, I have been doing swallow studies for 12 years now and it has always been our rule that while I am conducting the test, I am looking at a monitor watching what is going on.  The radiologist is sitting right next to me running the equipment - watching the same monitor.  Then there is another SLP in the room who watches a separate monitor while running the vcr/dvd recorder and taking notes for me.  Not counting any other SLPs who attend the testing with their patients, we have a minimum of 3 sets of eyes watching each test - after which I write a brief report summarizing what we saw.  Then after testing is concluded for the day, I review the tapes and write a secondary more formal report.  The radiologist co-signs both reports with me.  I hope this
 information helps.
   
  Kurt R. Daniels, MS, CCC-SLP/L

msgroislp at optonline.net wrote:
  Hello all,
This board has been a wonderful avenue to learn and grow in the field of dysphagia. My question is for everyone. Do you know if there is a Standard of Care re: how many speech pathologists conduct the study, i.e. 2 vs. 1. In my facility and some of the local hospitals, the norm is that there are 2 speech pathologists in the room (one feeding and one viewing the video). We do not get any input from the radiologists, even with prompting and several attempts to "get them involved in diagnosing", etc)., therefore, we believe that "2 sets of eyes are better than one".

I would appreciate any input and thanks again for sharing your knowledge. 

Maria Sgroi, M.S., CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
msgroislp at optonline.net
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