Endoscopists attitudes on the publication of "quality" data for endoscopic procedures: a cross-sectional survey.
BACKGROUND
Whilst the public now have access to mortality & morbidity data for cardiothoracic surgeons, such "quality" data for endoscopy are not generally available. We studied endoscopists' attitudes to and the practicality of this data being published.


METHODS
We sent a questionnaire to all consultant gastrointestinal (GI) surgeons, physicians and medical GI specialist registrars in the Northern region who currently perform GI endoscopic procedures (n = 132). We recorded endoscopist demographics, experience and current data collection practice. We also assessed the acceptability and utility of nine items describing endoscopic "quality" (e.g. mortality, complication & completion rates).


RESULTS
103 (78%) doctors responded of whom 79 were consultants (77%). 61 (59%) respondents were physicians. 77 (75%) collect any "quality" data. The most frequently collected item was colonoscopic completion rate. Data were most commonly collected for appraisal, audit or clinical governance. The majority of doctors (54%) kept these data only available to themselves, and just one allowed the public to access this. The most acceptable data item was annual number of endoscopies and the least was crude upper GI bleeding mortality. Surgeons rated information less acceptable and less useful than physicians. Acceptability and utility scores were not related to gender, length of experience or current activity levels. Only two respondents thought all items totally unacceptable and useless.


CONCLUSIONS
The majority of endoscopists currently collect "quality" data for their practice although these are not widely available. The endoscopists in this study consider the publication of their outcome data to be "fairly unacceptable/not very useful" to "neutral" (score 2-3). If these data were made available to patients, consideration must be given to both its value and its acceptability.
Hearnshaw
Sarah A
SA
NHS Blood and Transplant, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK. sarah.hearnshaw@nbs.nhs.uk <sarah.hearnshaw@nbs.nhs.uk>
Maddock
Helena M
HM
Nylander
David
D
Prince
Martin I
MI
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom