TABLE 1.

Summary of data collected during the Practice Audit in Gastroenterolgy (PAGE)

Section I: Demographic data

Physician demographics

Sex

Primary specialty or subspecialty

Years in specialist practice

Practice demographics

Province

Postal code

Location population

Individual or group practice

University or private practice

Endoscopy suite location

Local service provision

Type of specialists providing digestive disease consultations

Type of specialists providing endoscopy services

Provision of wait time tracking

Estimated wait times for routine consultation

Estimated wait times for routine endoscopy/colonoscopy

Provision of internal medicine call

Reserved time for emergencies

Provision of screening colonoscopy for average-risk patients

Acceptance of new referrals

Use of triage to prioritize referrals

Section II: Patient-specific data

Baseline referral data

Specialty of referring physician

Date of initial referral

Referral mechanism (eg, fax, letter, phone call)

Type of visit (consultation versus procedure)

Date of consultation and/or procedure visit

Reason for visit

Referral for a specific test

Procedure performed (procedure visit only) (upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, radiological procedure, gastrointestinal function test, other)

Whether appointment was rescheduled

Whether referral was triaged

Patient history

Presence of any alarm features*

Symptoms and/or signs

Presence of abnormal test results

Family history of digestive diseases

Patient history of digestive diseases

Primary reason for the referral

Physician evaluation

Likelihood of cancer

Priority for endoscopy (if deemed necessary)

Medical appropriateness of referral

Timeliness of health care delivery

*Alarm features include abdominal mass, dysphagia, positive occult blood test, anemia, bloody diarrhea, melena or rectal bleeding, hematemesis, vomiting, jaundice and weight loss (8)