| Working Groups Accreditation
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| Chairperson: Mahasti Saghatchian |
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Steering Group:
Mahasti Saghatchian, Ulrik Ringborg, Renée Otter, Dominique de Valeriola, Wim Van Harten, Thomas Tursz, Angelo Paradiso
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Henk Hummel (manager WG Accreditation project), Bert Koot (training and E-tool)
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| TOWARDS QUALITY, COMPREHENSIVENESS AND EXCELLENCY: |
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THE ACCREDITATION PROJECT OF THE ORGANISATION OF EUROPEAN CANCER INSTITUTES (OECI).
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Author:
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Mahasti Saghatchian, MD |
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Abstract
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Background:
There are important gaps in the health status of citizens across Europe,
as measured by life expectancy, mortality or morbidity data
(Report for the European Commission on the health status of the European Union, 2003).
Among the main determinants of the major causes of mortality and morbidity, stated in this report,
stands recurrently access to quality healthcare. There is a fundamental need to define quality indicators
and set minimal levels of performance quality criteria for healthcare. There is a need to integrate research
into healthcare and to provide patients with equity of access to such high quality care.
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Materials and methods:
Oncology is a speciality particularly suited to experimenting a first application of accreditation at European level.
The Organisation of European Cancer Institutes is a growing network of cancer Centres in Europe.
The focus of the OECI is to work with professionals and organisations with regard to prevention, care, research,
development, patient’s role and education. In order to fulfil its mission, the OECI initiated in 2002 an accreditation
project with three objectives:
- to develop a comprehensive accreditation system for oncology care, taking into account prevention, care,
research, education and networking.
- to set an updated database of cancer centres in Europe, with exhaustive information on their resources and
activities (in care, research, education and management)
- to develop a global labelling tool dedicated to comprehensive cancer centres in Europe, designating the various
types of cancer structures, and the comprehensive cancer centres of reference and Excellence.
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Results:
An accreditation tool has been established, defining standards and criteria for prevention, care,
research, education and follow-up activities. A quantitative database of cancer centres is integrated
in the tool, with a questionnaire, that provides an overall view of the oncological landscape in OECI
cancer centres in Europe. Data on infrastructures, resources and activities have been collected.
This OECI accreditation tool will be launched in autumn 2008 for all cancer centres in Europe.
It serves as a basis for the development of the labelling tool for cancer structures in Europe, with a focus on
Comprehensiveness and Excellency labels.
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Discussion:
Quality assessment and improvement is a critical need in Europe and is addressed by the OECI
for cancer care in Europe. Accreditation is a well accepted process and is feasible.
Standards and criteria as well as an accreditation tool have been developed.
The OECI questionnaire gives an accurate vision of cancer institutions throughout Europe, helping assessing the
needs and providing standards.
The accreditation project is a long-term complete and voluntary process with external and internal added value,
an active process of sharing information and experience that should help the whole cancer community reach
comprehensiveness and excellence.
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KEYWORDS:
Cancer centre; quality of care; assessment; labelling; accreditation; organisation of care;
integration; comprehensiveness.
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1- The context
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1.1 Development of Health plans
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Resources, financial and otherwise, vary greatly from country to country and systems for providing medical care are
similarly varied, however research on health care plans should help develop systems allowing to meet certain common
goals such as access to, and continuity of, quality care.
Consensual standards and criteria for quality of care are sought by health care professionals, especially for
emerging health care systems, as well as incentives and processes for quality improvement.
Those criteria should cover clinical guidelines, but also encompass the area of organisation and management
of the institution and of health care processes (1).
Especially when interactions among various professionals are needed, for multidisciplinary care,
or for integration and translation of research into care, a strong framework for quality must be established,
including processes for team work or for interaction, in order to allow all health care institutions take part in a
global quality improvement process.
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Cancer is a worldwide health burden affecting both the survival and quality of life of human beings.
At European level, huge efforts are being made for better coordination and overall improvement of the research and
care in the cancer field. However, health care planning in the cancer field is crucially and urgently needed in order
to better integrate these efforts and foster existing initiatives (2). Important funds are dedicated to research and
actions are taken to promote the translation of the knowledge and innovation into care. Still, information on quality
of care standards and criteria, and access to knowledge and information are unequally shared throughout Europe.
A common initiative of consensual definition of quality criteria and standards, their dissemination and the evaluation
of the adequacy of the practices with the standards, should help harmonise and improve care standards, both at
the clinical level and at the organisational and management level. This would help ensure not only minimal safety
conditions of cancer care, but also improve access to high quality health care and potentially stimulate optimal
provision of care integrating the best of knowledge.
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Table 1. Oncology specificities
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In this context, a system establishing consensual and common standards and criteria,
allowing both self evaluation of these criteria and external evaluation through peer review
should be tested for its ability to answer the quality issue.
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1.2 Access to Information
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Patients should receive adequate information about their illness, possible interventions, and the known
benefits and risks of specific treatment options. These matters should be discussed with qualified health
care personnel who are committed to responding forthrightly to patient inquiries. Patients should have the
ability to ascertain names, roles and qualifications of those who are treating them.
Most of all, considering the potential mobility of patients in the European Community, patients should receive adequate information
on the standards of care and where they can receive adequate quality care, or information about care centres of reference and centres
of excellence. Therefore, a system providing updated peer-reviewed mapping and sound information on recognised centres of high quality
care should be developed.
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1.3 Innovative Cancer Care
Research progresses achieved in the fight against cancer should be translated into care,
in order to improve survival and quality of life of cancer patients. Patients should be offered the
opportunity to participate in relevant clinical trials and should have access to innovative therapies that
might improve their disease outcome.
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1.4 Common vision
There is a need to work towards a common vision of European cancer activities: prevention, care, research,
development and education. It is important to create a network sharing a consensual view of cancer activities
and with an integration of care and research.
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1.5 Quality and the Cancer World
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Quality Issues in the Cancer community vary from the different points of view of the cancer world.
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- What do cancer centres / professionals need to improve in terms of quality?
- Consensual objective standards and criteria on how high-quality cancer prevention / care
/ follow-up / research / education should be performed
- A process of self evaluation of this quality
- A process of peer review of the quality
- Recognition of the quality (accreditation / labels)
- Measurements to compare: References for benchmarking
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- What we should give to our patients?
- Best of prevention / care / follow-up
- Proven interventions at minimum risk
- Benefits from research
- Information on where to get the best
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- What health authorities are lacking?
- A regulation system to ensure that we offer the public better survival and quality of life
- A regulation system to allow efficient funding (especially of care and research)
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- What research funders are seeking?
- Reference centres for fast and efficient research development
- Safety assurance
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2. The OECI accreditation project: A cancer quality project
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2.1 Principles
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The mission of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) is to serve as a linking organisation,
coordinating interdisciplinary cancer treatment and improving the quality of cancer care.
This can be achieved by integrating cancer prevention, research and development and cancer education (3).
Consequently, the OECI launched the Accreditation Project in September 2005, and gave mandate to the Accreditation
Working Group (AWG) to lead this project.
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The OECI AWG involved scientists, forming a diverse, coordinated and integrated network with the following
relevant characteristics:
- Ability to address different disciplinary aspects. Partners are scientific experts who are involved in
everyday specialised patient care and are participating in medical care and research, in healthcare institutions
management, and researchers from national agencies involved in Healthcare assessment or Health insurance.
- Integration of activities and research through the involvement of a common steering committee at
every-decision making step.
- Evidence-based design after evaluation of the currently used performance assessment system after in depth
inventory and comparison.
- Comprehensive, by taking into account various types of procedures aimed at improving quality
(accreditation systems, clinical guidelines implementation systems, regulation and legislations);
and by considering systems in both Member States and third countries; and by using results from ongoing
research performed by other organisations.
- Informative, by ensuring systematic analysis and reporting of data with web-based dissemination and
stakeholders’ involvement.
- Innovative, with the systematic research on implementation through information technologies.
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The Creation of a European accreditation programme for Cancer Structures within the OECI is focused on the key
issues for quality comprehensive cancer care structures: i.e. the rapid translation of results from research into
daily practice and the total and global quality management of the cancer patient during his lifetime.
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2.2 The OECI Accreditation tool
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The AWG’s preliminary work was to review existing options in order to complete the creation of a European
accreditation programme and consensually choose the quality credentials and criteria relevant to improving of
cancer care throughout Europe.
The AWG discussed the numerous challenges for Europe regarding the creation of a consensus on the definition of quality care.
In this respect, European OECI member countries share many of the same differences such as population, technology, national
regulations, cultural habits and language. OECI wishes to link European countries, define their qualities, improve their
research and construct quality comprehensive cancer care centres.
Special focus was made on specific oncology key aspects such as multidisciplinarity,
global care, integration of research, networking, patients involvement.
Considering these prerequisites, the AWG established:
- standards and criteria for quality multidisciplinary cancer care delivered in cancer centres throughout Europe (Quality Manual),
- a process allowing to survey the cancer centres in order to assess compliance with those standards,
- a quantitative questionnaire measuring the resources and activities in the cancer centres,
- a tool to collect standardised and quality data from approved cancer centres, to measure treatments patterns and outcomes. The tool is translated into an electronic format (OECI accreditation e-Tool).
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The Quality Manual is composed of several chapters
- General standards, strategic plan and general management (19)
- Screening, primary prevention and health education (7)
- Care (9)
- Research, innovation and development (12)
- Teaching and continuing education (4)
- Patient section (7)
Each chapter is divided into sections:
- Policy and organisation
- Process control
- Resources and materials
- Knowledge and skills
- Safeguarding the quality system
The qualitative questionnaire covers data regarding all the resources and activities of the cancer centre as shown in Table 1.
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Table 2. Quantitative Questionnaire (database)
| General Content |
- Type of centre/inst
- Population base
- Infrastructures – care
- Human resources
- Clinical care
- Research
- Education
- Institutional structures and budgets
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Infrastructures for cancer care |
- Inpatient beds
- Outpatient beds
- Radiotherapy
- Surgery
- Haematology
- Intensive care
- Screening-early detection
- Palliative care
- Psychosocial oncology
- Rehabilitation
- Pain treatment
- Nuclear medicine
- Cytology/histopathology
- Tumour bank
- Transfusion centre
- Bone marrow bank
- Central pharmacy
- Quality assurance unit
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| Human resources |
- Number of employees
- Specialised doctors
- Nurses
- Engineers, physics
- Technicians
- Dieticians
- Psychologists
- Pharmacists
- Physicists
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| Clinical care activities |
- Prevention
- Screening
- Genetic counselling
- Multidisciplinary teams
- Care programmes
- Number of new pts
- Outpatient visits
- Day care
- Inpatients
- Duration of stay
- Chemotherapy
- Radiation therapy
- Bone marrow/stem cell transplantations
- Surgical procedures
- Tumour pathological diagnoses
- Patient waiting time
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| Research activities |
- Animal host facilities
- Biomics
- Tumour bank
- R&D unit
- SME contact
- Biostatistics
- Epidemiology
- Health economy
- Ethical review committee
- Clinical trial unit
- Translational research
- Clinical trial activities
- University affiliation
- Research collaboration
- Research staff
- Scientific publications
- Research funding
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| Education |
- Information centre for patients
- Medical library
- Education courses
- Students: basic, specialist, research
- Academic positions
- Exchange programme
- CME
- PhD thesis
- Educational programmes for patients
- Educational activities for decision makers
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| Institutional structure and budget |
- Administrative status, academic, public, private etc
- Coordination of cancer care
- Part of network
- International affairs department
- Budget health care
- Budget research
- Budget education
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Both the quality manual and the quantitative questionnaire are translated into an e-Tool.
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Development of this innovative information technology tool has been assigned to a professional SME,
Compusense, which closely interacts with the AWG for the translation into an IT tool that would be user-friendly
for inexperienced healthcare professionals, while allowing sound reporting and statistical analysis of data.
Compusense is an appropriate partner for its specific expertise in International cooperation and on the
European market since it has extensive experience in automating accreditation systems for professionals, e.g. for
NIAZ (Netherlands accreditation organization for hospitals) and for the Danish accreditation organization.
The e-tool plays an important role in the questionnaire format for OECI members’ participation in the accreditation process.
The web-based tool is a secure site for member use only.
Figure 3. The OECI Accreditation e-Tool
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2.2 The OECI accreditation process
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The AWG obtained the commitment of 8 volunteer centres for 2 pilot phases on the understanding, feasibility and adaptability of the assessment tool.
The first pilot aimed at checking and improving the standards, criteria and the items quantitative questionnaire.
Once the criteria and norms were adjusted, methods through which hospitals and professionals can check what they must improve to reach the required
level of care delivery (self-evaluation model) were developed and assessed in a second pilot.
Still in the works, the second pilot of the e-tool is intended to validate the peer-review system and hence create an evaluation tool, which
could provide audit recommendations for improvement.
Besides a self-evaluation tool it is necessary to develop an accreditation method. Impartial auditors who will be
able to identify those elements within the organization, which should be improved, will look at the care delivery.
It will also be possible to compare one’s own organization to others accredited organisations. Comparing with others gives the
opportunity to learn from each other and in consequence to improve one’s care delivery. The goal is to reach such a level of care delivery in
Europe that, throughout Europe, patients will have the guaranty that oncological care is in accordance with European standards (4; 5).
The results of this second pilot will allow finalizing the tool and preparing for dissemination at European level.
The good progress made to date by the AWG should allow starting the OECI accreditation process for all OECI members in autumn 2008.
The 2008 Genoa OECI General Assembly is thus a unique opportunity for the AWG to present and discuss the Accreditation Programme designed for OECI members.
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Figure 4. Next steps
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3. Further Developments
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3.1 General Perspective
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Guidelines for diagnosis and care facilitate collaboration in clinical research. Harmonisation strategies for the different cancer centres
in combination with improved communication and educational programmes will increase collaboration and sharing of common facilities.
An important goal of the programme is increased integration between cancer care and research. Improving overall quality of cancer centres
as well as harmonization and quality assurance of the infrastructure for translational research will, with OECI as a frame, increase
communication and collaboration between European cancer institutes. The work will start with the linkage of a few cancer centres to
establish “good examples or best practices”. Increased collaboration between cancer centres will increase the possibilities to elaborate
interesting research plans with increased chances to receive economic support from the funding programmes of the EU.
Eventually, the data could be used to evaluate cancer centres performances and develop effective systems and interventions that will
allow us to improve cancer care outcomes at the national and European level (6).
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Integration of research: a global policy issue
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There is an urgent need for bridging the gap between basic research and clinical practice, to allow a fast translation
of the outstanding progress achieved in basic research into new diagnostic tools, new treatments and new technologies dedicated to
prevention care or rehabilitation. However, such rapid translational is hampered by various structural elements:
- National health systems, with lack of structural process for the development of innovation
- Financial constraints in the health system: another structural brake regarding innovation
There are major inequalities in Europe and within each member state for access to high quality care updated to the most recent developments.
Innovation actually concerns a small minority of patients (less than 5 % of European Cancer patients have access to clinical trials).
Efficient transfer of new concepts - new tools - new technologies towards diagnosis and treatment requires the development of specialised
skills in Genetics, Genomics, New technologies: Imaging - Physics – Bioinformatics, Social Sciences, and Economics.
There is, in this context, a need for the rapid development of new diagnostic markers, new targets for therapy, new methodologies for
clinical trials, new endpoints (functional imaging), and new rules of the game with the industry.
The fundamental achievement would be a new deal with informed patients/citizens seen as real partners for research.
Quality improvement strategies should integrate this fundamental dimension and allow identification and promotion of reference basic
research centres and translational reference research centres to make all changes in cure and survival available to patients throughout
Europe (7).
Implementation of the OECI performance tool, particularly in the context of oncology, which is a critical example of these issues, will
identify ways of integrating this additional layer of quality care in the overall assessment of Institutions.
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Figure 5. Developments
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3.2 Labelling of Cancer Structures
The AWG’s plan is to build a long-term complete and voluntary process with external and internal added value.
It should become an active process of sharing information and experience.
It is important to define common tools for auto evaluation that are not daunting and have been created with a set of guidelines agreed
by peers and colleagues
The definition and scoring of the various types of Cancer structures will help improve the status of all participating Centres.
With this background, the AWG is also developing a labelling system of the different cancer institutes / centres and for Comprehensive
Cancer Centres of Excellence organised centrally or as a network.
At this stage, the following key issues will be addressed: are the centres only focused on treatment? Do they participate in education,
basic research and translational research with a continuum of clinical and basic research?
There needs to be agreement on the quality of the research process and its integration into the daily activities of the centres.
Clinical research and participation in clinical trials and the evaluation of the quality of the data is also part of the quality process.
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3.3 Collaborations
With all the topics and areas involved in the AWG programme, collaboration with external partners is needed.
Therefore, the AWG has enlisted the help of other organisations in Europe active in good clinical practice such as
ESMO (European Society of Medical Oncology), EORTC (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer), ESTRO
(European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology) ESSO (European Society of Surgical Oncology),
EONS (European Oncology Nursing Society), Eusoma Breast Cancer Units, CocanCPG project and many others,
especially patient’s organisations which should be at the centre of the project .
To illustrate the OECI’s work towards completing its accreditation programme, the AWG is inviting international experts to provide
input in the process. The US and Canadian systems and experiences are a great contribution.
Moreover, close interactions with national coordinating structures is key for the implementation and dissemination of the process;
for instance, the French Federation of Cancer Centres and the Alleanza Contro il Cancro are key partners that support strongly the
initiative and ease the process by creating a direct and efficient link with all the cancer centres in France and Italy.
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3.4 Dissemination, education
As the networking process is very important, the organisation provides constant efforts in order to facilitate the sharing of expertise
between the various stakeholders and cancer professionals in Europe.
For accredited centres to maintain their status and in order to give the opportunity to other centres to improve and/or become a
partner in the networking process, the AWG organises the appropriate educational activities, especially training sessions on the
electronic tool for self-evaluation, and auditors training for peer review.
Moreover, a communication strategy will be set up to inform the authorities, the public and the patients about the results of the process.
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4- Conclusion
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In the end, among the potential benefits of such a project, the most immediate ones are:
- improved care to individuals
- strengthened community confidence in the quality of continuous care in the hospital,
- healthcare professional education,
- stimulation of quality improvement efforts if the accreditation recommendations are implemented after the accreditation process,
- objective evaluation of the hospital’s quality of care,
- potential for improved liability insurance coverage,
- comparative assessment of care structures,
- provision of a more coherent overall vision with a clear evidence base,
- reporting to the public
- increased harmonisation and equity for patients (8)
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Moreover, the evaluation of cancer structures can serve as a basis for the evaluation and accreditation of different specialities
linked to cancer care, such as surgery, radiation therapy, imaging techniques, rehabilitation structures, outcome measurement, and health
registries. It covers thus different disciplinary aspects.
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Collecting and selecting minimum standards for quality healthcare is aimed at providing transparent and visible information to citizens and
evidence-based data for informed access to healthcare institutions, as a right of citizens of the EU.
It should also provide guidance and help for healthcare institutions located within Member States lacking performance assessment structures
in order to reducing inequalities, providing equity and allowing mobility of patients.
The OECI accreditation project will be implemented in a way that allows consultation and participation of health care providers and
consumers in a balanced way, thus enabling a deeper involvement of individuals in the design of policy strategies concerning their health
and well-being.
The accreditation tool is designed for internal use by health care organisations to support performance improvement and for external use,
to demonstrate accountability to the public and other interested stakeholders. Performance measurement benefits health care institutions by
providing evidence-based, data-driven mechanisms that generate a continuous stream of performance information. This enables health care
institutions to understand how well their organisation is doing over time and have continuous access to objective data to support claims of
quality. The institutions can verify the effectiveness of corrective actions; identify areas of excellence within the institution; and
compare their performance with that of peer institutions using the same measures. Similarly, performance data can be used by external
stakeholders to make value-based decisions on where to seek quality health care (9). They may provide a basis for defining centres of
reference in Europe, especially for rare diseases.
Through its proposed accreditation system the OECI seeks to address concerns of citizens and to promote health protection and improvement,
over time. As a result it will promote the following principles:
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- The focus is on the patient: the comments and level of satisfaction of patients and other users of health care
organisations are taken into account during the elaboration of the Assessment tool and will continue to be taken into account in its
future use.
- Improvement in safety of care: safety is one of the major dimensions of quality of care, and one of the main
expectations of patients. In parallel to the increase in efficacy and complexity of hospital care over the last few decades, there
has been a comparable increase in potential risk to the individual. Risk prevention depends on a number of factors, including
compliance with safety regulations and good practice, and the establishment of a system of assessment and improvement based on
identifying risk areas and taking preventive action.
- Continuous quality improvement: in order to achieve continuous quality improvement, a recognised quality
management system is required, and the AWG will promote a systematic approach to improving processes and reduce errors, based on
active commitment from individuals.
- Involvement of professionals working in the health care organisation: quality improvement is the result of
internal initiatives implemented by the health care institution. It is essential that everyone participate in such initiatives,
so that they will accept changes and adopt appropriate solutions. The various stakeholders must be involved at every stage of the
design of the accreditation tool. The OECI AWG will explain, inform and communicate regularly with professionals.
- Continuous assessment and improvement of the assessment process: the principles of assessment and continuous
quality improvement required of health care organisations apply equally to the assessment process itself. The OECI AWG will work on
a monitoring system to enable it to measure efficacy, cost and any problems or dysfunction related to the assessment process, in the
light of results obtained from pilot testing.
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These principles will consequently foster responsibility and involvement of citizens regarding their health, allowing clear, visible
and transparent data throughout Europe, thus enhancing community confidence.
The OECI accreditation project could be the foundation of a new alliance between the cancer centres and their partners in the continuous
progress and search for excellence of research and care in oncology.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank all the contributors to the Accreditation project:
OECI Board Members and OECI office, for their constant support and encouragements
OECI AWG Steering Committee members:
- Pr Wim van Harten, Amsterdam
- Pr Renée Otter, Gröningen,
- Pr Ulrik Ringborg, Stockholm,
- Dr Mahasti Saghatchian, OECI AWG Chairwoman, Villejuif,
- Pr Thomas Tursz, Villejuif,
- Dr Dominique de Valeriola, Brussels
Alleanza Contro il Cancro: Pr Angelo Paradiso, representative
OECI AWG Project Manager: Mr. Henk Hummel, Groningen
OECI Accreditation e-tool designer and webmaster: Mr Bert Koot, Compusense
OECI AWG secretary: Mrs Cecile Tableau, France
OECI E&T WG : Dr Claudio Lombardo, for helping organise the accreditation e-training sessions.
OECI AWG pilot 1 and 2 contributors
- Brussels IJB : Dr Jean-Benoit Burrion
- Stockholm KI : Mrs Mia Bergenmar
- Amsterdam NKI : Mrs Jolanda Maaskant
- Villejuif IGR : Dr Gerard Nitenberg
- Brussels Z-VUB : Pr Guy Storme, Mr Sven D’haese
- Dijon GFL Cancer Centre : Pr Jean-Louis Horiot, Pr Pierre Fumoleau
- Bari : Pr Angelo Paradiso, Dr. Rosanna Lacalamita, Mr Massimiliano Shirone
- Budapest : Dr Josef lovey, Pr Miklos Kassler
Special thanks to Mr F. Charles for carefully revising the manuscript.
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For more information please visit www.oeci-eeig.org
For a demonstration of the e-Tool: www.oeci.selfassessment.nu (username and password oeci)
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From best evidence to best practice: effective implementation of change in patients' care.
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2. Berrino F, De Angelis R, Sant M, Rosso S, Bielska-Lasota M, Coebergh JW, Santaquilani M; EUROCARE Working group.
Survival for eight major cancers and all cancers combined for European adults diagnosed in 1995-99: results of the EUROCARE-4 study.
Lancet Oncol. 2007 Sep;8(9):773-83.
3. Ringborg U, Pierotti M, Storme G, Tursz T; A European Economic Interest Grouping.
Managing cancer in the EU: The Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI).
Eur J Cancer. 2008 Mar 10
4. Eccles M, Steen N, Grimshaw J, Thomas L, McNamee P, Soutter J, Wilsdon J, Matowe L, Needham G, Gilbert F, Bond S.
Effect of audit and feedback, and reminder messages on primary-care radiology referrals: a randomised trial.
Lancet. 2001 May 5;357(9266):1406-9.
5. Haward RA.
Using service guidance to shape the delivery of cancer services: experience in the UK.
Br J Cancer. 2003 Aug;89 Suppl 1:S12-4.
6. Haward RA.
The Calman-Hine report: a personal retrospective on the UK's first comprehensive policy on cancer services.
Lancet Oncol. 2006 Apr;7(4):336-46.
7. Sinha G.
United Kingdom becomes the cancer clinical trials recruitment capital of the world.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007 Mar 21;99(6):420-2.
8. Ringborg U.
Harmonizing cancer control in Europe.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2006;587:87-93
9. Saghatchian M, de Pouvourville G, Tursz T.
Cancer funding throughout the world.
Lancet Oncol. 2004 Jul;5(7):453-7.
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NEWS from the OECI Accreditation Working Group
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Dear OECI members,
As you all know, the objectives of the OECI accreditation project are to define consensual
quality standards and criteria for European oncology and develop a tool for professionals
enabling performances of the institutions to be assessed both internally plus externally.
Our shared objectives are constant quality improvement, benchmarking and defence of the
centre model within each country and through further European labelisation.
Through this project, we plan to develop a database of cancer centres describing in detail
the infrastructures and human resources present in cancer centres in Europe in order to allow
identification of the structures where accelerated development of innovative treatments or high
quality clinical research is feasible. This process will increase the efficacy of cancer
research and development and strengthen joint public private research in Europe for more
competitive cancer research.
The final objective is also to foster policies that will provide clear and sound information
for patients wishing to choose where they may obtain appropriate treatment throughout Europe.
Read more...
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Accreditation Workshop, Budapest November 10th 2007
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1st Accreditation Workshop, February 2nd 2007
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The workshop was hosted by the Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
Read more...
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