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The Impact of Commission on Cancer Accreditation Status, Hospital Rurality and Hospital Size on Quality Measure Performance Rates
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

The Impact of Commission on Cancer Accreditation Status, Hospital Rurality and Hospital Size on Quality Measure Performance Rates

Mary C. Schroeder, Xiang Gao, Ingrid Lizarraga, Amanda R. Kahl and Mary E. Charlton
Annals of surgical oncology, Vol.29(4), pp.2527-2536
2022
DOI: 10.1245/s10434-021-11304-3
PMID: 35067792
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/11559211View
Open Access

Abstract

Background Rural cancer patients receive lower-quality care and experience worse outcomes than urban patients. Commission on Cancer (CoC) accreditation requires hospitals to monitor performance on evidence-based quality measuresPlease confirm the list of authors is correc, but the impact of accreditation is not clear due to lack of data from non-accredited facilities and confounding between patient rurality and hospital accreditation, rurality, and size. Methods This retrospective, observational study assessed associations between rurality, accreditation, size, and performance rates for four CoC quality measures (breast radiation, breast chemotherapy, colon chemotherapy, colon nodal yield). Iowa Cancer Registry data were queried to identify all eligible patients diagnosed between 2011 and 2017. Cases were assigned to the surgery hospital to calculate performance rates. Univariate and multivariate regression models were fitted to identify patient- and hospital-level predictors and assess trends. Results The study cohort included 10,381 patients; 46% were rural. Compared with urban patients, rural patients more often received treatment at small, rural, and non-accredited facilities ( p  < 0.001 for all). Rural hospitals had fewer beds and were far less likely to be CoC-accredited than urban hospitals ( p  < 0.001 for all). On multivariate analysis, CoC accreditation was the strongest, independent predictor of higher hospital performance for all quality measures evaluated ( p  < 0.05 in each model). Performance rates significantly improved over time only for the colon nodal yield quality measure, and only in urban hospitals. Conclusions CoC accreditation requires monitoring and evaluating performance on quality measures, which likely contributes to better performance on these measures. Efforts to support rural hospital accreditation may improve existing disparities in rural cancer treatment and outcomes.
Colorectal Cancer Medicine Medicine & Public Health Oncology Surgery Surgical Oncology

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