The American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy/American College of Gastroenterology Task Force on Quality in Endoscopy has updated quality indicators for all GI/endoscopy procedures and the four major endoscopic procedures. Here are four things to know.
1. The full quality indicator updates are published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology and GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
2. The quality indicators, originally published in 2006, were updated by the ASGE/ACG joint effort, led by co-chairs Jonathan Cohen, MD, FASGE and Iriving Pike, MD, FACG, FASGE.
3. The task force published five different titles under the banner “Quality Indicators for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.” The titles include the following:
• Quality indicators common to all GI endoscopic procedures
• Quality indicators for EGD
• Quality indicators for colonoscopy
• Quality indicators for ERCP
• Quality indicators for EUS
4. “Major external forces stemming from policy makers, payers and ultimately patients have generated demand for a way to accurately define and measure the quality of the services endoscopists provide,” said Dr. Cohen. “The ultimate purpose of gathering data on these indicators will be to identify performance gaps, which will allow us to focus our improvement efforts and deliver high quality endoscopy care to our patients.”