Quality of care indicators in inflammatory bowel disease in a tertiary referral center with open access and objective assessment policies.

Background: In the management of inflammatory bowel diseases, there is considerable variation in quality of care.

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate structural, access/process components and outcome quality indicators in our tertiary referral IBD center.

Methods: In the first phase, structural/process components were assessed, followed by the second phase of formal evaluation of access and management on a set of consecutive IBD patients with and without active disease (248CD/125UC patients, median age 35/39 years).

Results: Structural/process components of our IBD center met the international recommendations. At or around the time of diagnosis usual procedures were full colonoscopy in all patients, with ileocolonoscopy/gastroscopy/CT/MRI in 81.8/45.5/66.1/49.6% of CD patients. A total of 86.7% of CD patients had any follow-up imaging evaluation or endoscopy. The median waiting time for non-emergency endoscopy/CT/MRI was 16/14/22 days. During the observational period patients with flares (CD/UC:50.6/54.6%) were seen by specialist at the IBD clinic within a median of 1day with same day laboratory assessment, abdominal US, CT scan/surgical consult and change in therapy if needed. Surgery and hospitalization rates were 20.1/1.4% and 17.3/3.2% of CD/UC patients.

Conclusion: Our results highlight that structural components and processes applied in our center are in line with international recommendations, including an open clinic concept and fast track access to specialist consultation, endoscopy and imaging.