Measuring supportive care in medical oncology practice: lessons learned from the quality oncology practice initiative.
We provide a brief review of the use of quality measures to assess supportive care in the medical oncology office. Specifically, we discuss the development and implementation of supportive care measures in the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI), a voluntary quality measurement and improvement program of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. QOPI has demonstrated that medical oncologists voluntarily engage in self-assessment and often select measures related to supportive care for measurement and improvement. Results to date have demonstrated that there is room for improvement in this domain. Because supportive care measures appropriate for use through structured chart review in the outpatient oncology setting are not generally available in the published literature, measures have been developed and tested through the program. Additional measures are in development for implementation in QOPI in 2008.
McNiff
Kristen K
KK
American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2318 Mill Road, Suite 800, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA. mcniffk@asco.org
Neuss
Michael N
MN
Jacobson
Joseph O
JO
Eisenberg
Peter D
PD
Kadlubek
Pamela
P
Simone
Joseph V
JV
D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D012944:Social Support