Impact of a Statewide Oral Oncolytic Initiative on Five Participating Practices

The shift from infusion to oral oncolytic therapy presents challenges to oncology practitioners. The purpose of this study was to describe how a statewide quality-improvement collaborative can enhance quality of care for patients receiving oral oncolytic therapy.

The Michigan Oncology Quality Consortium hosted a series of learning sessions focused on oral oncolytic quality improvement, providing multiple resources to oncology community practices. The first five participating practices reported which of the evidence-based Michigan Oncology Quality Consortium resources provided were implemented at their site. They also performed prepost self-assessments in October 2013 and April 2015 and another in December 2017 to assess sustainability. Concordance with the ASCO Quality Oncology Practice Initiative oral chemotherapy standards, including documentation (five measures), patient education (seven measures), and follow-up/monitoring (four measures), was compared.

All practices showed improvement between 2013 and 2015 in documentation (32% to 88%; P = .03), patient education (37% to 100%; P could not be calculated), and monitoring (40% to 80%; P > .2). Overall, a significant improvement in concordance was observed (36% to 91%; P = .03). Use of resources from each practice varied, and practices that used more resources showed greater improvements. There was a slight decrease in overall concordance between 2015 and 2017, which was not found to be significant (91% to 84%; P = .53).

Use of tools from a quality-improvement collaborative improved concordance with national standards of care. Large-scale deployment of this model program may provide a clinically efficient and effective mechanism to enhance widespread change.