ONS Quality Initiative

New! Breast Cancer Survivorship (BCS) Measure Set

Building on the successful national pilot testing of the Breast Cancer Care Measure Set in 2010, a second set of quality measures focused on the care of patients with early-stage breast cancer in the year post-treatment completion has been drafted. The new Breast Cancer Survivorship Measure Set will undergo pilot testing at 30 to 50 clinical practice sites nationwide through the end of 2011. Contact research@ons.org with any questions or comments on these measure sets to learn more about the ONS Quality Initiative.

Oncology nurses have always worked to provide the highest quality care to their patients, and the national spotlight on quality care for all has recently begun to intensify as well. ONS has launched a Quality Initiative to focus efforts to:

• Promote the development and testing of valid and reliable quality measures
• Encourage participation by members in practice-based and national quality efforts
• Promote the identification and implementation of the highest quality evidence into practice policies and procedures, and for daily clinical decision making

The first project underway as part of the Quality Initiative is development and testing of the Breast Cancer Care (BCC) and Breast Cancer Survivorship (BCS) Quality Measures sets. This project is funded by a 3 year grant from the National Philanthropic Trust's Breast Cancer Fund, and has several goals between 2009 and 2011:

• Develop and perform validity and reliability testing a set of quality measures focused on the care of the patient receiving chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer (the BCC measure set)
• Develop and test a set of quality measures focused on the care of patient with breast cancer in the first year post-chemotherapy treatment completion
• Disseminate information about the process of quality measurement, and how to implement practice changes where necessary to improve performance after self- measurement

Want to find more information on Quality? Check out what these national organizations are doing to promote high-quality health care:

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), home of National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC) and the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC).
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
• National Quality Forum (NQF)

Take a look at the press release  for the BCC measures project to learn more. You can also view a background presentation on ONS' quality work.