Defining Quality of Care for Breast Cancer: Clinical Challenges

Breast cancer is the second most common oncologic diagnosis in women; however, these patients only receive 86% of the basic recommended care. Understanding how high-quality breast cancer care is defined and measured is the first step toward improving the care we provide. In addition, regulatory agencies and some payers are requiring that certain measures of quality are reported and publicized. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offers higher payments to hospitals and providers with better quality care, ie, pay-for-performance. As the demands on physicians to measure quality grow, it is imperative that we are well informed on the topic and participate in the current debates and future policy implications. In this article, we describe the methods used to measure the quality of care, as well as the challenges to measuring and providing high-quality breast cancer care.