Govert Veldhuijzen

151 The D-GESQ captures patient satisfaction as a key quality indicator of gastrointestinal endoscopy INTRODUCTION Endoscopy is the most effective strategy for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases, especially oesophageal, gastric and colorectal cancer. 1 Of these, colorectal cancer leads to high morbidity and mortality, with an estimated 1.8 million diagnoses and 862,000 deaths in 2018 worldwide. 2,3 During colonoscopy, precancerous lesions can be detected and removed, thereby reducing the incidence of colorectal cancer. With adequate surveillance, this risk is further reduced. As a result, colonoscopy-based screening programs have been implemented in many countries in recent years. 4 There are several technical outcome measures of colonoscopy such as adenoma detection rate and quality of bowel preparation. Patient measures, such as comfort and satisfaction have also been recognised as increasingly important outcomes. Therefore, the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) has stated that patient satisfaction is one of the most important outcome measures of endoscopy. 6 This information should be gathered routinely, so it could subsequently improve service quality. Patient satisfaction represents the evaluation by patients of the performance of the health care provider. Patients’ experiences and perceptions have become a central focus in health care delivery. 8 It can serve as an ultimate endpoint to health care quality, because good patient satisfaction is associated with decreased utilization of medical services, improved compliance and better prognosis. 9,10 To assess patient satisfaction of endoscopic procedures the gastrointestinal endoscopy satisfaction questionnaire (GESQ) was recently developed in the United Kingdom. This questionnaire tool, available in the English language, has shown good internal and construct validity. 11 To allow the use of the GESQ in the Dutch language area we adapted it in a manner useful for clinicians and health care practitioners while maintaining the meaning and intent of the original items. The idea was to develop a valid and reliable Dutch quantitative instrument to measure patients’ cognitive and emotional response after endoscopy. To this end, we translated and validated the GESQ in a Dutch endoscopic population, according to the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). 12 8