ABSTRACT
Continuous quality improvement and patient safety in gastro- intestinal (GI) endoscopy are overarching priorities of the Euro- pean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and the European Society of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Nurses and Associates (ESGENA). Consistently with these societal prio- rities, ESGE has developed and disseminated quality indicators to improve both the efficacy and safety of GI endoscopy proce- dures [1, 2]. Moreover, the patients we serve expect us to provide a safe, rigorous, and standardized approach to the per- formance of both diagnostic and therapeutic GI endoscopy pro- cedures.
Since Haynes et al. published their landmark study in 2009 [3], reporting that a surgery safety checklist (the World Health Organization [WHO] Surgical Safety Checklist) significantly re- duced postoperative surgical mortality and inpatient adverse events, there has been a growing body of evidence demonstrat- ing the importance of surgical safety checklists in the operating theatre [4, 5]. Studies have shown that safety checklists in the operating theatre enhance a team approach, flatten hierar- chies, improve team communication and nontechnical skills, and contribute to the safe delivery of patient care [4, 5]. Taken altogether, this has led to the uptake and routine use of surgery safety checklists in operating theatres around the world.
