Title

Quality of Colonoscopy: A Comparison Between Gastroenterologists and Nongastroenterologists

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2020

Description

BACKGROUND: Colonoscopy performance by gastroenterologists has been shown to be associated with lower rates of developing interval colorectal cancer. However, it is unclear if this difference among specialists stems from a difference in meeting colonoscopy quality indicators. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to determine and compare the rates of colonoscopy quality indicators between different specialties. DESIGN: This is a cohort study of patients undergoing screening colonoscopy investigating quality metrics as compared by the proceduralist specialty. SETTING: All screening colonoscopies performed at the Cleveland Clinic between 2012 and 2014 were followed by manual chart review. PATIENTS: Average-risk patients, ≥50 years of age, who had a complete screening colonoscopy were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Adenoma detection rate, cecal intubation rate, withdrawal time, and other nonestablished overall and segment-specific rates were calculated and compared using t tests. RESULTS: A total of 4151 patients were included in the analysis. Colonoscopies were performed by 54 (64.3%) gastroenterologists, 21 (25%) colorectal surgeons, and 9 (10.7%) general surgeons. Gastroenterologists had the highest overall adenoma detection rate (28.6 ± 1.2; p < 0.001), followed by colorectal surgeons (24.3 ± 1.5) and general surgeons (18.4 ± 2.3), as well as the highest adenoma detection rate in men (34.7 ± 1.3; p < 0.001), followed by colorectal surgeons (28.2 ± 1.6) and general surgeons (23.7 ± 2.6). Similarly, gastroenterologists had the highest adenoma detection rate in women (24.3 ± 1.1; p < 0.001), followed by colorectal surgeons (21.6 ± 1.4) and general surgeons (12.9 ± 2.0). Withdrawal time was the longest among general surgeons (11.1 ± 5.5; p = 0.041), followed by colorectal surgeons (10.94 ± 5.2) and gastroenterologists (10.16 ± 1.26). LIMITATIONS: We could not adjust for some procedure-related details such as retroflexion in the right colon and the use of end-of-scope devices. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, only gastroenterologists met the currently accepted overall and sex-specific adenoma detection rate benchmarks. They also outperformed nongastroenterologists in many other nonestablished quality metrics. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/B232.

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