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Quality of integrated care for patients with head and neck cancer: Development and measurement of clinical indicators
Author(s) -
Ouwens Mariëlle M. M. T. J.,
Marres Henri A. M.,
Hermens Rosella R. P.,
Hulscher Marlies M. E.,
van den Hoogen Frank J. A.,
Grol Richard P.,
Wollersheim Hub C. H.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.20532
Subject(s) - medicine , head and neck cancer , head and neck , test (biology) , quality (philosophy) , clinical practice , medical physics , set (abstract data type) , cancer , physical therapy , surgery , computer science , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , biology , programming language
Background. To improve the quality of integrated care, we developed indicators for assessing current practice in a large reference center for head and neck oncology. Methods. We defined a set of indicators based on integrated care literature, national evidence‐based guidelines for patients with head and neck cancer, and the opinions of professionals and patients. We tested this set regarding assessement of current practice and clinimetric characteristics. Results. The final set consisted of 8 integrated care indicators and 23 specific indicators for patients with head and neck cancer. Current practice assessment produced high scores for the integrated care indicators, but the specific indicators showed room for improvement. The practice test showed that 9 indicators had good applicability. Conclusions. The indicators, while based on evidence‐based guidelines and the principles of integrated care, should incorporate patients' opinions and include a practice test. Our results show that the quality of integrated care for patients with head and neck cancer could be improved. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2007