Bridges to excellence quality indicators in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): differences between IBD and non-IBD gastroenterologists

BACKGROUND The American Gastroenterology Association (AGA) Bridges to Excellence (BTE) Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Care Recognition program encourages clinicians to develop a superior quality of care in the treatment of IBD. We evaluated adherence to BTE measures in the care of IBD patients among IBD and non-IBD gastrointestinal physicians at a tertiary care hospital. METHODS We performed a retrospective chart analysis of IBD patients who had received care at our center between January 2013 and March 2015. The patients were divided into two groups: a. care provided by an IBD-trained physician with more than 50% of their practice dedicated to IBD; and b. care provided by a non-IBD gastrointestinal physician. Data collected included baseline patient characteristics and eight BTE measures. Overall adherence to BTE measures and average scores as per the AGA 100 point scale were evaluated and compared between the two groups. RESULTS A total of 325 IBD patients met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. Of these, 216 patients received care from an IBD physician. Patients managed by IBD physicians were younger and had more severe disease. Both physician groups scored above the recommended score of 60. IBD physicians had a higher average score on the AGA 100 point scale (73.9 vs 66.3, P=0.001). Overall adherence to BTE quality measures was higher for IBD physicians compared to non-IBD physicians (71.8% vs. 58.8%, P value: 0.001). CONCLUSION Both IBD and non-IBD physicians exceeded the AGA recommended score of 60 on the BTE measures at our center. IBD physicians perform better overall on BTE quality measures compared to non-IBD physicians.