Model for the cost-efficient delivery of continuous quality cancer care: a hospital and private-practice collaboration.

Cancer care is expensive due to the high costs of treatment and preventable utilization of resources. Government, employer groups, and insurers are seeking cancer care delivery models that promote both cost-efficiency and quality care. Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas (BUMC), a large tertiary care hospital, in collaboration with Texas Oncology, a large private oncology practice, established two independent centers that function cooperatively within the Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, the Oncology Evaluation and Treatment Center (OETC) and Infusion Center, to deliver urgent care and infusions after hours to oncology patients. Quality measures based on evidence-based care and cost-efficiency measures were implemented within these centers. Ability to meet predetermined goals for these measures will be a guide for implementing continuous quality and cost-efficiency interventions. During the first two quarters of operations, 2023 patients received care in the OETC (n = 423) and Infusion Center (n = 1600). The average time spent in the OETC was 48% less than the time spent in the BUMC emergency department (ED). Eighty-nine percent of the cancer center' patients who received urgent care at BUMC were referred to the OETC for this care, instead of the BUMC ED. The hospital admission rate in the OETC was 59% lower than it was in the BUMC ED, a high-volume level I trauma center. The addition of the OETC and Infusion Center to the cancer center holds promise for providing continuous quality cancer care that is cost-efficient.