Quality assurance for endoscopists

Abstract

Quality assurance for gastrointestinal endoscopy addresses numerous aspects of unit management and patient care. Quality measures pertinent to patient care delivered by the individual endoscopist include optimal practices in the pre-procedure, intra-procedure, and post-procedure timeframes. Measures commonly employed to monitor colonoscopy care are discussed in detail. Several quality assurance techniques are well defined and useful for application to identified gaps in care. Quality improvement projects and ongoing quality assurance benchmarking against local and national norms are greatly facilitated by use of electronic report generators and computerized databases.