A survey of credentialing for ERCP in the United States.

Background And Aims: There are limited data measuring the variability in standards used by hospitals for credentialing physicians to ERCP in the United States.

Methods: We performed an electronic survey of U.S. gastroenterologists.

Results: Among 1126 respondents, 21% reported that their hospitals had no written guidelines for initial credentialing, and 59% reported that their hospitals had no written guidelines for repeat credentialing. Among those with guidelines, less than half had any of the criteria recommended by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Conclusions: There is an urgent need to improve the credentialing process to enhance practice and to protect patients. An easy-to-use national system for recording and reporting ERCP quality data, like that of the GI Quality Improvement Consortium, is needed.