Cancer Care Quality Measures: Diagnosis and Treatment of Colorectal Cancer. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment Number 138

摘要

The burden of illness from colorectal cancer (CRC), the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., is substantial. One way to reduce the burden of illness is to improve the quality of care for patients with CRC. Measuring quality of care can help identify specific areas in need of improvement. Sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Duke Evidence-base Practice Center undertook this evidence report to identify measures that are currently available to assess the quality of care provided to patients with CRC, and to assess the extent to which these measures have been developed and tested. With this basis, we also report on areas for future research with an explicit aim of developing a set of measures that can effectively evaluate the process of care provided to CRC patients. Information from this evidence report will be used by technical panels convened by the National Quality Forum (NQF) to consider cancer care quality measures. Quality measures may be classified as structure, process, and outcome measures. While all three types are considered here, the primary focus is on process measures, whether or not such measures have been formally applied within the context of quality improvement.