Quality Measurement

Ensuring Quality Cancer Care (IOM, 1999)

Recommendation 3 Measure and monitor the quality of care using a core set of quality measures. Measures should:

• span the continuum of cancer care and be developed through a coordinated public-private effort;

• be used to hold providers, including health care systems, health plans, and physicians accountable for providing and improving quality care;

• be applied to care provided through the Medicare and Medicaid programs as a requirement of participation in these programs; and

• be disseminated widely and communicated to purchasers, providers, consumer organizations, individuals with care, policy makers, and health services researchers, in a form that is relevant and useful for health care decision-making.

Enhancing Data Systems to Improve the Quality of Cancer Care (IOM, 2000)

Recommendation 1 Develop a core set of cancer care quality measures.

1. The secretary of DHHS should designate a committee made up of representatives of public institutions (e.g., The DHHS Quality of Cancer Care Committee, state cancer registries, academic institutions) and private groups (e.g., consumer organizations, professional associations, purchasers, health insurers and plans) to: 1) identify a single set of quality measures that span the full spectrum of an individual’s care and are based on the best available evidence; 2) advise other national groups (e.g., National Committee for Quality Insurance, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, National Quality Forum) to adopt the recommended core set of measures….

2. Research sponsors (e.g., AHRQ, NCI, HCFA, VA) should invest in studies to identify evidence-based quality indicators across the continuum of cancer care.

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1. Efforts to identify quality of cancer care measures should be coordinated with ongoing national efforts regarding quality of care.