WHAT ACTION SHOULD HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS TAKE, AS A RESULT OF THE STUDY?
The most logical action would be to collect data on common procedures and their subsequent outcomes. We have been able to collect important “target” data for breast cancer management from important breast cancer processes and our actual performance from available hospital and provider databases, as shown in Table 3. To date we have not been able to use that data for anything other than a performance-monitoring tool, but perhaps there will come a time when insurers will pay more for proven quality. In the meantime, such report cards have given us an important internal measure of quality, and we have expanded their use to palliative care and other parts of the oncology service line.
