The Florida Initiative for Quality Cancer Care: a regional project to measure and improve cancer care.

BACKGROUND: The Florida Initiative for Quality Cancer Care (FIQCC) is a physician and practice-based quality improvement project that was conceived to study the barriers to delivering quality cancer care in Florida. The ultimate goal of the FIQCC is to improve cancer care throughout the state. This report provides an overview of the development and implementation of the FIQCC.
METHODS: Representatives from 11 oncology practices across the state of Florida selected quality measures consistent with evidence-, consensus-, and safety-based guidelines that could be abstracted from medical records. Trained abstractors review records of all eligible patients seen by each practice and enter the data into a Web-based application. Frequencies of responses for each indicator are tabulated for overall and practice-specific level of adherence and compared among practices. Seminars are held to discuss strategies to address opportunities for improvement in the quality of cancer care identified by the survey.
RESULTS: Three quality of cancer indicator modules organized by diagnosis (colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer) as well as a module relating to a domain of care (psychosocial care) have been developed by FIQCC participants. All of the participating practices successfully completed data collection for the colorectal cancer and breast cancer modules as well as the psychosocial care module. To date, 1,622 charts have been successfully entered into the FIQCC database. Results from the colorectal survey confirmed high overall rates of compliance with a series of quality indicators but also identified areas for improvement.
CONCLUSIONS: The FIQCC is working toward becoming a statewide program that enables practicing oncologists and investigators to measure and address disparities in the delivery of quality cancer care.