Using a disease pathway management approach to improve the quality of breast cancer care in Ontario.

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 109-109
Author(s):  
Andrea Eisen ◽  
Jasmin Soobrian ◽  
Ashley Tyrrell ◽  
Clement Li ◽  
Derek Muradali ◽  
...  

109 Background: Disease Pathway Management (DPM) is used by Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) to set priorities for cancer control, plan cancer services, and improve the quality of care in Ontario by promoting standardization. The DPM approach applies a framework to examine the performance of the entire system from prevention to end of life care, and to identify any gaps within the system. In 2014, DPM began its breast cancer pathway initiative by mapping the patient journey, depicting evidence-based best practice along the breast cancer care continuum, identifying where further guidance is needed for clinical decision making, and identifying gaps in quality of care and performance measurement indicators. Objective: To evaluate the impact of DPM on quality assessment of breast cancer care in Ontario. Methods: DPM convened a multidisciplinary breast cancer working group (WG) of 40 experts from across Ontario. The WG held 12 meetings and used guidelines developed by CCO’s Program in Evidence Based Care (or other sources as needed) to generate pathways for the prevention, screening and diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care for breast cancer. The pathways were used as a framework to review the existing inventory of provincial breast cancer quality indicators, and to identify areas where evidence based guidance is needed. The pathways were subjected to an extensive review process before publication. Results: The expert WG identified 28 priority areas, including opportunities to develop guidance in areas where it is lacking (e.g. role of perioperative breast MRI; indications for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy) and system barriers that may hinder optimal care (e.g. biomarker assessment). The WG also used the pathways as a framework for evaluating performance measurement indicators by mapping 48 existing quality indicators for breast cancer to the pathway. Conclusions: The CCO DPM Breast Cancer pathways facilitated a province-wide, multidisciplinary process to promote quality standards, to identify gaps and overlaps in performance and quality measurement, and to recommend additional indicators more relevant to the quality of breast cancer care in Ontario.

2010 ◽  
Vol 76 (10) ◽  
pp. 1043-1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Formosa Chen ◽  
Cheryl Mercado ◽  
Irina Yermilov ◽  
Melissa Puig ◽  
Clifford Y. Ko ◽  
...  

The continuum of breast cancer care requires multidisciplinary efforts. Patient navigators, who perform outreach, coordination, and education, have been shown to improve some areas of care. However, little research has assessed the impact of navigators on breast cancer treatment in uninsured populations. Our objective is to report on the impact of a patient navigator program on breast cancer quality of care at a public hospital. One hundred consecutive newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer (Stages I to III) were identified (2005 to 2007). Forty-nine patients were treated before the use of navigators and 51 after program implementation. Nine breast cancer quality indicators were used to evaluate quality of care. Overall adherence to the quality indicators improved from 69 to 86 per cent with the use of patient navigators ( P < 0.01). Only one individual indicator, use of surveillance mammography, improved significantly (52 to 76%, P < 0.05). All nine indicators reached 75 per cent or greater adherence rates after implementation of the navigator program compared with only four before implementation. Patient navigators appear to improve breast cancer quality of care in a public hospital. In populations in which cultural, linguistic, and financial barriers are prevalent, navigator programs can be effective in narrowing the observed gaps in the quality of cancer care.


2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
G.L Beets ◽  
C.N.A Frotscher ◽  
C.D Dirksen ◽  
M.H Hebly ◽  
M.F von Meyenfeldt

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 2614-2614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne S. Mandelblatt ◽  
Patricia A. Ganz ◽  
Katherine L. Kahn

ABSTRACT: Cancer is an important disease, and health care services have the potential to improve the quality and quantity of life for cancer patients. The delivery of these services also has recently been well codified. Given this framework, cancer care presents a unique opportunity for clinicians to develop and test outcome measures across diverse practice settings. Recently, the Institute of Medicine released a report reviewing the quality of cancer care in the United States and called for further development and monitoring of quality indicators. Thus, as we move into the 21st century, professional and regulatory agencies will be seeking to expand process measures and develop and validate outcomes-oriented measures for cancer and other diseases. For such measures to be clinically relevant and feasible, it is key that the oncology community take an active leadership role in this process. To set the stage for such activities, this article first reviews broad methodologic concerns involved in selecting measures of the quality of care, using breast cancer to exemplify key issues. We then use the case of breast cancer to review the different phases of cancer care and provide examples of phase-specific measures that, after careful operationalization, testing, and validation, could be used as the basis of an agenda for measuring the quality of breast cancer care in oncology practice. The diffusion of process and outcome measures into practice; the practicality, reliability, and validity of these measures; and the impact that these indicators have on practice patterns and the health of populations will be key to evaluating the success of such quality-of-care paradigms. Ultimately, improved quality of care should translate into morbidity and mortality reductions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (15) ◽  
pp. 1791-1795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina A. Bickell ◽  
Jennifer Neuman ◽  
Kezhen Fei ◽  
Rebeca Franco ◽  
Kathie-Ann Joseph

Purpose Because insurers use performance and quality metrics to inform reimbursement, identifying remediable causes of poor-quality cancer care is imperative. We undertook this descriptive cohort study to assess key predictors of women's perceived quality of their breast cancer care and actual guideline-concordant quality of care received. Patients and Methods We surveyed inner-city women with newly diagnosed and surgically treated early-stage breast cancer requiring adjuvant treatment who were enrolled onto a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of patient assistance to reduce disparities in care. We assessed women's perceived quality of care and perceived quality of the process of getting care, such as getting referrals, test results, and treatments; we abstracted records to determine the actual quality of care. Results Of the 374 new patients with early-stage breast cancer enrolled onto the RCT, only a slight majority of women (55%) perceived their quality of care as excellent; 88% actually received good-quality, guideline-concordant care. Excellent perceived quality (P < .001) was significantly associated with patients' perception of the quality of the process of getting care (adjusted relative risk [RR], 1.78; 95% CI, 1.65 to 1.87). Also associated with perceived quality—and mediated by race—were trust in one's physician (adjusted RR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.16 to 1.64) and perceived racism, which affected black women more than women of other races/ethnicities (black race–adjusted RR for perceived racism, 0.33 [95% CI, 0.10 to 0.87]; black race–adjusted RR for trust, 1.61 [95% CI, 0.97 to 1.90]; c = 0.82 for the model; P < .001). Actual quality of care provided did not affect perceived quality of care received. Conclusion Patients' perceived quality of care differs from their receipt of high-quality care. Mutable targets to improve perceived quality of care include the processes of getting care and trusting their physician.


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 3251-3256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Weber ◽  
Debra C. Mascarenhas ◽  
Lisa S. Bellin ◽  
Rachel E. Raab ◽  
Jan H. Wong

1996 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenio Paci ◽  
Angelo Cariddi ◽  
Alessandro Barchielli ◽  
Simonetta Bianchi ◽  
Gaetano Cardona ◽  
...  

Background Quality of care is today a major issue in oncology, and much attention is given to research on the outcome of breast cancer care. Too little attention has been devoted in the scientific literature to the consequences of treatment in long-term survivors, and in particular to the possible side effects. The specific aim of this contribution is to present population-based data about the long-term impact of breast cancer care in women who had an incident cancer in 1985/1986. Patients and Methods The cases are 476 breast cancers incident in the City of Florence in 1985-86. Women still living 5 years later were invited to have an interview and a physical examination. Lymphedema, peripheral nerve lesions and damage to the shoulder were assessed. Results Of the 346 5-year survivors, 238 accepted our invitation: 35.2% of the women reported some early postoperative sequelae, 30.2% had a chronic lymphedema and 18.9% a shoulder deficit. Comparing breast-conserving surgery with radical mastectomy, the risk of chronic lymphedema (OR=1.62; 95% CI: 0.91-2.88) and other lesions was higher for women who had a radical surgery. Women who had a breast-conserving surgery more often reported an early lymphedema (OR=1.60; 95% CI: 0.88-2.88). Conclusions The proportion of women who complained of (or manifested at the physical examination) a minor or major disability of the arm in our study was high. The impact of these functional problems in terms of quality of life should also be assessed, but it is our impression that there is need for much greater attention to the issue of long-term survivor sequelae.


2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (8) ◽  
pp. 1257-1264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mascha de Kok ◽  
Rachel W. Scholte ◽  
Herman J. Sixma ◽  
Trudy van der Weijden ◽  
Karin F. Spijkers ◽  
...  

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