Procedure-specific outcomes assessment for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

The outcome of therapeutic ERCP, or any other medical intervention, is a balance between technical success, avoidance of complications, and efficacy of the procedure in achieving its intended therapeutic goal. There is an increasing need for objective assessment of such outcomes to help physicians improve their quality of care, to enable patients to better select health care providers, and increasingly, because health care providers are demanding some kind of objective assessment. In this article, the author reviews methods for quantification of the three principal components of ERCP outcomes, and provides suggestions for data collection to facilitate quality assessment in clinical practice.