Quality indicators for EUS

EUS has become integral to the diagnosis and staging of indicators were chosen by expert consensus. Although GI and mediastinal mass lesions and conditions. EUSguided FNA (EUS-FNA) allows the endoscopist to obtain tissue or fluid for cytologic and chemical analysis, adding to the procedure’s utility. Furthermore, the recent development of EUS-guided core biopsy techniques enables histologic sampling in selected cases and for obtaining tissue for molecular analysis in neoadjuvant and palliative settings. The clinical effectiveness of EUS and EUS-FNA depends on the judicious use of these techniques. The quality of health care can be measured by comparing the performance of an individual or a group of individuals with an ideal or benchmark. The particular parameter that is being used for comparison is termed a quality indicator. Quality indicators often are reported as ratios between the incidence of correct performance and the opportunity for correct performance or as the proportion of interventions that achieve a predefined goal. Quality indicators can be divided into 3 categories: (1) structural measuresdthese assess characteristics of the entire health care environment (eg, availability and maintenance of endoscopy equipment at a hospital), (2) process measuresdthese assess performance during the delivery of care (eg, diagnostic rates of malignancy in patients undergoing EUS-FNA of pancreatic masses), (3) outcome measures: these assess the results of the care that was provided (eg, frequency of infection after EUS with FNA of cystic lesions).