Table 3.

Quotes Representative of the Effect of Workload and Reduced Endoscopic Capacity

Patient harm

So what annoyed me so much about this is because, I mean, his cancer is just invading the stocks so if he would have had the colonoscopy quicker it would have prevented the cancer. (Provider 9)

Cause [sic] what if you wait 6 months for a barium enema and in six months it turns out something’s positive and then you wait for one month or two months to get a colonoscopy? It’s bad for the patient. (Provider 8)

Sympathy for the GI Department

And I understand from the GI clinicians’ standpoint that they are overwhelmed by the number of GI bleeds and just overwhelmed by the number of cases they have to do. I understand that completely. (Provider 1)

We know GI takes a little longer because they have so many patients and the doctors are a little busy. (Provider 6)

I mean, I’m not blaming anybody. We understand the burden that they’re in. (Provider 7)

I just think the system is over impacted and that’s the problem. (Provider 10)

Lack of Resources

It’s just the resources…I mean if you don’t have anything there…you just can’t. (Provider 4)

It’s resources. I mean they put the guidelines, they look very nice but in reality you cannot apply it. In real life everybody should have a colonoscopy when you reach fifty. But we don’t have it here. Even if you [have a] rectal bleed, hem [sic] positive stool [you get a] barium enema. Then you would take it from there. We cannot implement because there’s no resources. (Provider 3)

You know, to be honest with you, we all kind of know what needs to be done it’s just a matter of whether we have the availability. (Provider 10)