Colonoscopy is an important tool when it comes to keeping people healthy. This vital screening tool saves lives because most colorectal cancers can be prevented. Finding a pre-cancerous polyp and removing it prevents the polyp from developing into cancer.

The Quest Colonoscopy Quality Team, comprised of gastroenterologists, pathologists and surgeons, studied and evaluated the important characteristics that make up a high quality colonoscopy:

• It is performed at the right time and at the right interval.
• Patients do not suffer serious complications, such as bleeding enough to need a blood transfusion, suffering a perforation of the bowel, needing to be hospitalized, or dying as a result of the test.
• The physician completes a standardized assessment of medical risk and a standardized assessment of the completeness of bowel cleansing.
• The test is completed to the end of the colon with a photo taken to document the location.
• Complete information is provided to the pathologist when a polyp is found.
• The amount of time spent examining the colon is recorded.

The team developed and tested a process to collect all of these aspects of quality and score every test by rating the aspects as "meeting all quality standards" or "not meeting one or more of the quality standards." The team recommended this rigorous scoring because every characteristic being measured is important to any patient having a colonoscopy. A pilot was conducted by OSF Saint Francis Medical Center and the initial results were posted in a 2008 website report - view here.

OSF Saint Francis Medical Center and Methodist Medical Center endoscopy centers collected data in 2009 and those results are newly published on our Quality Reports website page - view here.  Data from other regional endoscopy centers will be added in the near future.

Colonoscopy Team

Team Lead: Terry Baldwin, MD
Black Belt: Rusty Hewit

Team Members:
Michael Cashman, MD
Tom Rossi, MD
Michael Hayes, MD
Rick Luetkemeyer, MD
Michael Shekleton, MD
Rita Menold
Jane Brophy
Ara Peterson
Gail Daman