How to implement adverse events as a quality indicator in gastrointestinal endoscopy

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Medical Quality Improvement
• Health Informatics

Background:

• International endoscopy societies recognize adverse event (AE) registration as a key quality indicator.
• Implementing AE registration in practice faces significant challenges, as evidenced by published literature.
• Existing methods struggle to capture endoscopy and sedation-related events effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the difficulties in registering endoscopy-related adverse events and incidents.
• To propose an efficient system for prospective and complete AE and outcome registration.
• To explore how data-driven feedback can optimize benchmark data and credentialing.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of published attempts and challenges in AE registration.
• Discussion of theoretical versus practical implementation hurdles.
• Analysis of potential solutions for comprehensive data capture.

Main Results:

• Numerous attempts to register endoscopy AEs have highlighted diverse implementation challenges.
• Current methods are insufficient for prospective and complete capture of AEs and related incidents.
• Government-financed healthcare databases with automated data coupling are identified as a viable solution.

Conclusions:

• Prospective and complete registration of endoscopy-related AEs and outcomes is essential for quality improvement.
• Government-supported health databases offer an efficient mechanism for AE data collection and feedback.
• Data-driven credentialing, informed by pooled national data, can progressively optimize quality benchmarks.