Composite quality assessment and survival rates in patients after surgical treatment of esophageal and colon cancer

Abstract

Quality assurance in county clinics plays a key role in the successful realization of the Federal project named "Battle with cancer" across the country. Comparisons between healthcare organizations demonstrate that certain hospitals perform superiorly while characterized by one quality measure, but inferiorly by another. There is a need for the introduction of integrated cancer care quality criteria in real practice. In recent years, the composite quality criteria called “textbook outcomes” were developed to better reflect the entity of cancer care. This paper provides clear examples of composite criteria for assessing the quality of esophageal and colon cancer surgery. Summarizing quality indicators are easily applicable tools to clinical practice. These parameters when developed properly could, particularly in considered examples, be associated with the long-term survival among cancer patients. The use of “textbook outcome” will probably help to reduce unreasonable differences in the quality of medical care provided by different organizations by choosing targeted measures to improve the skills of medical personnel as well as financial aid and/or human resources.