Outpatient facilities differ in colonoscopy quality

Editor's Note

In this study, researchers from Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, calculated a risk-adjusted outcomes measure of outpatient colonoscopy, which shows important variation in quality among outpatient facilities.

The outcomes measure profiles outpatient facility quality by examining rates of unplanned hospital visits in the 7 days after colonoscopy.

Of 331,880 colonoscopy patients analyzed, using Medicare data, 5,412 experienced at least 1 unplanned visit, for a rate of 16.3 per 1,000 colonoscopies. Hemorrhage, abdominal pain, and perforation were the most common causes of unplanned visits. A total of 15 variables were independently associated with unplanned visits.

The outcomes measure was developed as part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services initiative to develop outpatient quality measures, the authors say.