Is It Feasible and Desirable to Collect Voluntarily Quality and Outcome Data Nationally in Palliative Oncology Care?

Hospice/palliative care is a critical component of cancer care. In Australia, more than 85% ofpeople referred to specialized hospice/palliative care services (SHPCS) have a primary diagnosis ofcancer, and 60% of people who die from cancer will be referred to SHPCS. The Palliative CareOutcomes Collab...

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Main Authors: Currow, D., Eagar, K., Aoun, Samar, Fildes , D., Yates, P., Kristjanson, Linda
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Society of Clinical Oncology 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32382
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author Currow, D.
Eagar, K.
Aoun, Samar
Fildes , D.
Yates, P.
Kristjanson, Linda
author_facet Currow, D.
Eagar, K.
Aoun, Samar
Fildes , D.
Yates, P.
Kristjanson, Linda
author_sort Currow, D.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Hospice/palliative care is a critical component of cancer care. In Australia, more than 85% ofpeople referred to specialized hospice/palliative care services (SHPCS) have a primary diagnosis ofcancer, and 60% of people who die from cancer will be referred to SHPCS. The Palliative CareOutcomes Collaboration (PCOC) is an Australian initiative that allows SHPCS to collect nationallyagreed-upon measures to better understand quality, safety, and outcomes of care. This articledescribes data (October 2006 through September 2007) from the first 22 SHPCS, with more than100 inpatient admissions annually. Data include phase of illness, place of discharge, and, at eachtransition in place of care, the person?s functional status, dependency, and symptom scores. Dataare available for 5,395 people for 6,379 admissions. After categorizing by phase of illness anddependency, there remain at the end of each admission 12-fold differences (mean, 26%; range,4% to 52%) in the percentage of patients who became stable after an unstable phase; seven-folddifferences (mean, 22%; range, 6% to 41%) in the percentage of patients with improvedsymptom scores, five-fold differences (mean, 25%; range, 12% to 64%) in discharge back to thecommunity, four-fold differences (mean, 10%; range, 4% to 16%) in improved function, andthree-fold differences in the length of stay (mean, 14 days; range, 6 to 19 days). PCOC shows itis feasible to collect quality national palliative care outcome data voluntarily. Variations in outcomesjustify continued enrollment of services. Benchmarking should include all patients whose cancerwill cause death and explore observed variations.
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publishDate 2008
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-323822017-01-30T13:30:40Z Is It Feasible and Desirable to Collect Voluntarily Quality and Outcome Data Nationally in Palliative Oncology Care? Currow, D. Eagar, K. Aoun, Samar Fildes , D. Yates, P. Kristjanson, Linda Quality and Outcome Data Voluntarily Palliative Oncology Hospice/palliative care is a critical component of cancer care. In Australia, more than 85% ofpeople referred to specialized hospice/palliative care services (SHPCS) have a primary diagnosis ofcancer, and 60% of people who die from cancer will be referred to SHPCS. The Palliative CareOutcomes Collaboration (PCOC) is an Australian initiative that allows SHPCS to collect nationallyagreed-upon measures to better understand quality, safety, and outcomes of care. This articledescribes data (October 2006 through September 2007) from the first 22 SHPCS, with more than100 inpatient admissions annually. Data include phase of illness, place of discharge, and, at eachtransition in place of care, the person?s functional status, dependency, and symptom scores. Dataare available for 5,395 people for 6,379 admissions. After categorizing by phase of illness anddependency, there remain at the end of each admission 12-fold differences (mean, 26%; range,4% to 52%) in the percentage of patients who became stable after an unstable phase; seven-folddifferences (mean, 22%; range, 6% to 41%) in the percentage of patients with improvedsymptom scores, five-fold differences (mean, 25%; range, 12% to 64%) in discharge back to thecommunity, four-fold differences (mean, 10%; range, 4% to 16%) in improved function, andthree-fold differences in the length of stay (mean, 14 days; range, 6 to 19 days). PCOC shows itis feasible to collect quality national palliative care outcome data voluntarily. Variations in outcomesjustify continued enrollment of services. Benchmarking should include all patients whose cancerwill cause death and explore observed variations. 2008 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32382 American Society of Clinical Oncology restricted
spellingShingle Quality and Outcome Data
Voluntarily
Palliative Oncology
Currow, D.
Eagar, K.
Aoun, Samar
Fildes , D.
Yates, P.
Kristjanson, Linda
Is It Feasible and Desirable to Collect Voluntarily Quality and Outcome Data Nationally in Palliative Oncology Care?
title Is It Feasible and Desirable to Collect Voluntarily Quality and Outcome Data Nationally in Palliative Oncology Care?
title_full Is It Feasible and Desirable to Collect Voluntarily Quality and Outcome Data Nationally in Palliative Oncology Care?
title_fullStr Is It Feasible and Desirable to Collect Voluntarily Quality and Outcome Data Nationally in Palliative Oncology Care?
title_full_unstemmed Is It Feasible and Desirable to Collect Voluntarily Quality and Outcome Data Nationally in Palliative Oncology Care?
title_short Is It Feasible and Desirable to Collect Voluntarily Quality and Outcome Data Nationally in Palliative Oncology Care?
title_sort is it feasible and desirable to collect voluntarily quality and outcome data nationally in palliative oncology care?
topic Quality and Outcome Data
Voluntarily
Palliative Oncology
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32382