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GIQuIC: A ‘Tremendous Tool’ for Practice Improvement, Reporting
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As a group of seven private practice community gastroenterologists in North Little Rock, Arkansas, we saw the MIPS requirements of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reporting and realized we needed a mechanism to fulfill those requirements. GIQuIC provided that mechanism and we incorporated it into our practice in 2015
Four years later, I can attest that this was a worthwhile investment. GIQuIC allowed us to report the required data to CMS. In addition, we are able to monitor and track quality data internally within the practice and follow trends in that data from year to year.
Prior to implementing GIQuIC, we were not tracking quality measures – cecal intubation rates, withdrawal times or adenoma detection rates. GIQuIC provided a ‘report card’ for our practice and the individual physicians. In 2015, our overall practice ADR was 31.9%; in 2018, our overall practice ADR improved to 41.3%. Each physician’s ADR improved over that time interval as well.
Whitfield Knapple, MD, FACG with Sharon Capps, RN.
Our initial GIQuIC data provided our baseline ADR, and we implemented practice improvement initiatives to improve our ADR. GIQuIC provided a mechanism for us to track our progress. Those initiatives included educating each physician on their ADR, standardizing split-dose preps for our practice and identifying those patients requiring a 2-day bowel prep. It has been reported for each 1% increase in ADR, there is a 3% reduction in the incidence of colon cancer and a 5% decrease in mortality.
In addition to tracking quality measures with the procedure, GIQuIC allows one to track and report appropriate guideline-based follow-up for subsequent colonoscopies. It also provides an internal quality control assuring there is a pathology report for each colonoscopy. This facilitates a process for our practice to notify patients when to return for appropriate surveillance colonoscopy.
We appointed an RN in our practice as our quality control nurse. I would highly recommend this if you currently have GIQuIC in your practice or are planning to add it to your practice. She monitors the data provided by the physicians to ensure that each procedure’s information and follow-up is complete. Our quality control nurse is extremely familiar with GIQuIC and has been instrumental in ensuring our data are complete. She worked closely with the staff at GIQuIC who have been and are extremely helpful to her and our practice.
The importance of colon cancer screening has been emphasized by many organizations including ACG, ASGE, AGA, and commercial insurance companies. Progress has been made with the incidence of colon cancer decreasing as more individuals undergo screening colonoscopy.
GIQuIC was instrumental in helping us improve the quality of colonoscopy in our practice. I highly recommend GIQuIC. Regardless of practice size, it is almost a “no brainer” to incorporate it into your practice. GIQuIC is a CMS-approved Quality Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) to report MIPS data, and provides a mechanism for internal quality control and quality improvement within your practice. This information should be potentially beneficial when negotiating with commercial insurance companies. Even if a practice does not report MIPS data to CMS, the practice and quality improvement monitoring provided by GIQuIC is a tremendous asset to your practice.
With reporting requirements expanding, GIQuIC is also expanding to stay current with these new requirements. In summary, GIQuIC is a tremendous tool and worthwhile investment for any gastroenterology practice.
- References:
- Corley DA, et al. N Engl J Med. 2014;doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1309086.
- For more information:
- Whitfield Knapple, MD, FACG is a partner in Arkansas Gastroenterology in North Little Rock, AR. He can be reached at knapplew@yahoo.com.
Disclosure: Knapple reports no relevant financial disclosures.