Oncology Collaborative Adds Ovarian Cancer as Special Focus
Deborah Reinheimer
| 3 min read
The Michigan Oncology Quality Consortium was launched in 2010 with the ambitious goal of improving the quality of cancer care provided to patients across the state of Michigan. As a result, over 90 percent of eligible Michigan oncologists participate to promote high-quality, effective, and cost-efficient care for cancer patients. Late last year, MOQC expanded its work by adding gynecologic malignancies to its mission. The result is the Gynecologic Oncology Initiative (MOQC-GO). MOQC-GO is initially focusing on quality of care for patients with ovarian cancer. “Ovarian cancer has the highest survival rates if it is caught at an early stage,” said Tom Leyden, director, BCBSM Value Partnerships program. “The response has been very enthusiastic for this initiative. About 90 percent of the gynecological oncologists in Michigan are already participating, and we’re still growing and even getting national attention.” The initiative encourages collaboration between the gynecologic oncology community and sharing of best practices between gynecologic and medical oncologists. Most ovarian cancer treatment involves a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, so coordination among medical and surgical disciplines is crucial for success. Participants are identifying gaps in care and developing methods to address them. “We created a multi-disciplinary steering committee that included physicians, nurses, pharmacists and administrators, and we reviewed about 200 quality metrics to determine the key metrics that we will collect and measure,” said Dr. Jennifer Griggs, MOQC program director. To start, the project is looking at 15 measures, including: • Pain control • Residual disease documentation • Interval between surgery and chemotherapy • Proportion of patients enrolled in hospice A complete list of measures can be found on the Michigan Oncology Quality Collaborative site under its initiatives, gynecology oncology page. Participating physicians and practices receive support with conducting needs assessments, collecting data, and designing and implementing quality improvement processes. They can take advantage of a variety of resources, such as documentation templates and educational materials. These help physicians deliver care to improve surgical and chemotherapy outcomes, and support patients to follow their care programs. The work is evidence-based, and the initiative allows for dissemination of practices that should improve quality for all patients receiving gynecologic care for cancer across Michigan. “Each of these goals is designed with the patient and their loved ones at the center of the care team,” said Dr. Griggs. For more information, go to moqc.org. Support for the Michigan Oncology Quality Consortium is provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) as part of the BCBSM Value Partnerships program. BCBSM’s Value Partnerships program provides clinical and executive support for all CQI programs. If you enjoyed this post, you might also like:
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Photo credit: ThitareeSarmkasat
