How Many Annual Colonoscopies to Maintain Credentialing?

Credentialing for endoscopy can be a contentious issue, particularly at a local level. Conflict often arises between gastroenterologists and surgeons or primary care physicians. These groups' professional organizations vary in the number of procedures they recommend to achieve initial credentialing. Also, data are limited as to how many procedures should be required to maintain credentialing.

In the current study, investigators evaluated the records of 129 operators who each performed between 20 and 399 procedures per year in the U.K. during 2008 and 2009. Standards set by the U.K.'s Joint Advisory Group on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (JAG) are a minimum of 100 colonoscopies per year and cecal intubation rates ≥90%. When investigators plotted…