Setting the bar: developing quality measures and education programs to define evidence-based, patient-centered, high-quality care.

In 2008, the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) initiated a multi-year project to develop and test quality measures in areas judged by oncology nurses as high-priority opportunities to improve quality of life for patients across the cancer continuum, and to provide education to oncology nurses on how to achieve high-quality care. Supported through a grant to the ONS Foundation by the Breast Cancer Fund of the National Philanthropic Trust, two teams of expert nurses convened to review the literature and draft potential measures that are considered important to providers and patients, are high-volume, high-impact issues, and are supported by strong clinical evidence linking high-quality care processes to improved outcomes. The ONS Foundation contracted with the Joint Commission's Department of Quality Measurement to combine its measure-development experience with ONS's ambulatory oncology perspective to create a reproducible testing process. A third project team designed and implemented a series of 10 regional education workshops illustrating the use and benefits of quality measurement in clinical care.