Reporting systems in gastrointestinal endoscopy: Requirements and standards facilitating quality improvement: European society of gastrointestinal endoscopy position statement

To develop standards for high quality of gastrointestinal endoscopy, the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) has established the ESGE Quality Improvement Committee. A prerequisite for quality assurance and improvement for all gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures is state-of-the-art integrated digital reporting systems for standardized documentation of the procedures. The current paper describes the ESGE’s viewpoints on requirements for high-quality endoscopy reporting systems. The following recommendations are issued: 1. Endoscopy reporting systems must be electronic. 2. Endoscopy reporting systems should be integrated into hospital patient record systems. 3. Endoscopy reporting systems should include patient identifiers to facilitate data linkage to other data sources. 4. Endoscopy reporting systems shall restrict the use of free text entry to a minimum, and be based mainly on structured data entry. 5. Separate entry of data for quality or research purposes is discouraged. Automatic data transfer for quality and research purposes must be facilitated. 6. Double entry of data by the endoscopist or associate personnel is discouraged. Available data from outside sources (administrative or medical) must be made available automatically. 7. Endoscopy reporting systems shall enable the inclusion of information on histopathology of detected lesions; patient’s satisfaction; adverse events; surveillance recommendations. 8. Endoscopy reporting systems must facilitate easy data retrieval at any time in a universally compatible format. 9. Endoscopy reporting systems must include data fields for key performance indicators as defined by quality improvement committees. 10. Endoscopy reporting systems must facilitate changes in indicators and data entry fields as required by professional organizations.