Here are nine things to know about the GI Quality Improvement Consortium and its national registry, from the consortium's website and Becker's ASC Review.
1. The GI Quality Improvement Consortium, or GIQuIC, is a nonprofit educational and scientific organization. Its aims include:
• Establishing a national gastroenterology and endoscopy data repository
• Providing benchmarking reports to participating physicians and facilities
• Identifying gaps in care and developing Endoscopy Quality Indicators to address those gaps
• Collecting data that researchers can use to conduct clinical outcomes studies and quality initiatives
2. Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare conducted a pilot project from 2006 to 2009 wherein physicians from around the United States submitted colonoscopy quality indicator data to a central repository. In 2009, the American College of Gastroenterology and American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy took over the project and rolled it out nationally, thus establishing the GIQuIC.
3. Irving M. Pike, MD, is currently the GIQuIC's director and president. He serves as CMO of John Muir Health in Walnut Creek, Calif. He is also vice president of the American College of Gastroenterology.
4. Glenn M. Eisen, MD, MPH, practices with the West Hills Gastroenterology division of The Oregon Clinic based in Portland. He is currently Clinical Professor of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. Mark B. Pochapin, MD, is director and treasurer of the consortium. He currently serves as director of gastroenterology at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City.
5. The GIQuIC registry collects 11 colonoscopy measures including:
• History and physical documentation
• Informed consent documentation
• Adequacy of bowel prep
• Written discharge instructions (outpatient)
• American Society of Anesthesiologists' category documentation
• Indication documentation
• Cecal intubation rate with photo documentation (all colonoscopies including screening, surveillance and diagnostic as well as screening)
• Adenoma detection rate — screening (female and male)
• Withdrawal time
• Immediate adverse events
• Appropriate Surveillance Interval Measures
6. The registry collects 12 esophagogastroduodenoscopy measures:
• Appropriate specimen acquisition in Barrett's esophagus
• Appropriate management of diagnosing new bleeding esophageal varices
• Appropriate endoscopic therapy for stigmata of peptic ulcer disease bleeding
• Appropriate anticoagulation management
• Appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis
• Helicobacter pylori status
• Immediate adverse events
• Indication documentation
• Written discharge instructions (outpatient)
• Informed consent documentation
• History and physical documentation
• ASA category documentation
7. CMS has once again approved the GIQuIC registry as qualified clinical data registry for the Physician Quality Reporting System for the 2016 reporting year. CMS first approved as a QCDR in 2014.
8. In November 2014, the GIQuIC registry included more than 1 million colonoscopy cases. In April 2016, the number had reached 3 million colonoscopy cases. Currently, more than 4,000 providers participate in the registry.
9. The GIQuIC registry also includes data from ambulatory surgery centers. Around 70 AmSurg centers have contributed records from 500,000 colonoscopies.