By awarding certificates to institutions which have proven their Endocrine Surgery expertise, the ESES contributes to measures that will maintain and improve the quality of patient care and surgical outcomes.
The process of quality improvement encompasses aspects of structural quality (e.g. clinic facilities and organization, training/education, research activities, continuing professional development), process quality (diagnostic algorithms, inter-disciplinary collaborations with other units, adherence to national and international treatment protocols and guidelines), and quality of outcomes (improvement or cure of diseases, high patient satisfaction, low complication rates, and low morbidity and mortality). Putative quality indicators and standards of Endocrine Surgery also include other aspects such as volume-outcome.
For ESES accreditation, quality outcome including structural and process quality is determined by mandatory collection and analysis of clinical data, including follow-up data. Quality indicators and standards are defined by an ESES Accreditation Committee, in the context of different health service systems in Europe, current guidelines for endocrine surgical diseases, as well as qualitative reproducibility. Quality indicators are therefore restricted to certain diagnoses, procedures, and complications that are subject to external audits. Endocrine Surgery units applying for accreditation must present valid data on process and outcome quality; successful accreditation is tied to quality control measures which must be fully disclosed during audits.