Measuring the quality of cancer care in the Barwon South Western region, Victoria, Australia

Objective: The implementation of clinical quality indicators for monitoring cancer care in regional, rural and remote areas.

Design: Retrospective data from a population-based Clinical Quality Registry for lung, colorectal and breast cancers.

Setting: All major health services in the Barwon South Western region, Victoria, Australia.

Participants: All patients who were diagnosed with cancer and who presented to a health service.

Intervention(s): Clinical subgroups to review variations.

Main outcome measures(s): Clinical quality indicators for lung, colorectal and breast cancers.

Results: Clinical indicators included the following: discussion at multidisciplinary meetings, the timeliness of care provided and the type of care for different stages of the disease and survival outcomes. Many of the derived clinical indicator targets were reached. However, variations led to an improvement in the tumour stage being recorded in the medical record; an improved awareness of the need for adjuvant chemotherapy for colorectal cancer; a reduction in time to treatment for lung cancer and a reduced time to surgery for breast cancer, and the 30-day mortality post-treatment for all of the tumour streams was highlighted.

Conclusions: Clinical quality indicators allow for valuable insights into patterns of care. These indicators are easily reproduced and may be of use to other cancer centres and health services.