Washington State
House of Representatives
Office of Program Research
BILL
ANALYSIS
Health Care & Wellness Committee
ESB 6151
Brief Description: Concerning the provision of an ultrasound.
Sponsors: Senators Randall, Wilson, C., Nobles, Trudeau, Kuderer, Dhingra, Frame, Hasegawa, Keiser, Liias, Salda?a, Stanford and Valdez.
Brief Summary of Engrossed Bill
  • Prohibits an individual other than a licensed health care provider, or a person working under a health care provider's supervision, from providing an ultrasound.
Hearing Date: 2/20/24
Staff: Emily Poole (786-7106).
Background:

Ultrasounds.

Ultrasounds use high frequency sound waves to create real-time pictures or videos of internal organs or other soft tissues, such as blood vessels, or to otherwise interact with tissue in the body.  According to the National Institutes of Health, Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, ultrasounds fall into two categories, diagnostic and therapeutic.  A diagnostic ultrasound is a diagnostic technique used to produce an image inside the body.  Most diagnostic ultrasound probes are placed on the skin. However, to optimize image quality, probes may be placed inside the body via the gastrointestinal tract, vagina, or blood vessels.  Therapeutic ultrasounds also use sound waves above the range of human hearing but do not produce images.  Instead, therapeutic ultrasounds are used to modify or destroy tissues in the body, such as dissolving blood clots.

 

Discipline of Health Care Professionals.

Health care providers are licensed and regulated by the relevant disciplining authority for each health care profession. Under the Uniform Disciplinary Act (UDA), disciplining authorities have the authority to investigate all complaints or reports of unprofessional conduct. Upon a finding, after a hearing, that a license holder has committed unprofessional conduct, the disciplining authority is required to issue an order including appropriate sanctions.
Summary of Bill:

An ultrasound or a similar medical imaging device or procedure may only be provided by a health care provider holding an active license and acting within the health care provider's scope of practice or by a person acting under the supervision of a health care provider holding an active license, where all actions performed are within the supervising health care provider's scope of practice.

 

A failure to comply with this requirement constitutes unlicensed practice under the UDA, except that the requirement does not apply to the use of an ultrasound by a person on livestock or other animals owned or being raised by that person.

 

Emergency medical personnel may provide an ultrasound as necessary in the course of their employment. 
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Available.
Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.