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Task Force Updates Quality Indicators for GI Endoscopic Procedures
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A task force assembled by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American College of Gastroenterology has released updated quality indicators for gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures, according to a press release.
The ASGE/AGE Task Force on Quality in Colonoscopy includes recognized experts in endoscopy from across the United States, and their effort to update the Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Quality Indicators aims to provide endoscopists with a current point of reference for measuring and improving their performance, the release said. The documents, which cover common quality indicators as well as those specific to colonoscopy, esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), have been reviewed and endorsed by the American Gastroenterological Association.
Jonathan Cohen
Irving M. Pike
“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,” Jonathan Cohen, MD, FASGE, division of gastroenterology, NYU Langone Medical Center, and co-chair of the task force, said in the release. “The updated list of quality indicators contained in these articles reflects gastroenterologists’ increased ability to measure their performances as well as public and private payers’ desire for them to report true outcomes. We anticipate that these articles will continue to guide our efforts to measure and benchmark the key components of the procedures we perform.”
The original quality indicators, published in 2006, established a foundation for measuring performance compared with best practices, “revolutionizing the area of quality in endoscopy,” the release said.
“Perhaps the greatest impact of the 2006 articles has been the impetus they provided and the foundation they laid for the development of central data repositories to facilitate widespread benchmarking based on these very indicators. As a result of the 2006 quality indicator documents, the GI Quality Improvement Consortium, Ltd. (GIQuIC) established a data repository and benchmarking tool,” Irving M. Pike, MD, FACG, FASGE, John Muir Medical Center, co-chair of the task force and president of the GIQuIC, said in the release. “This registry, a joint initiative of the ACG and ASGE, now has an expanding colonoscopy database that is a resource for the development of new quality measures, quality benchmarking and clinical research. GiQuIC recently added EGD measures and is in the process of adding ERCP and unit-based measures to the registry. Data reports from registries are being used by endoscopists and endoscopy units in continuous quality improvement efforts, which were the primary goal of the initial project to define quality indicators.”
The updated quality indicators are published online in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and The American Journal of Gastroenterology, and will appear in the January 2015 print issues of both publications, the release said.