This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ferrell, B. Articles by Koczywas, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ferrell, B. Articles by Koczywas, M. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

New Standards and Implications for Improving the Quality of Supportive Oncology Practice

Betty Ferrell, Judith Paice, Marianna Koczywas

From the Department of Nursing Research and Education, and Division of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA; and Cancer Pain Program, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL

Corresponding author: Betty Ferrell, PhD, FAAN, City of Hope National Medical Center, 1500 E Duarte Rd, Duarte, CA 91010; e-mail: bferrell{at}coh.org

The purpose of this article is to review current guidelines and national initiatives to improve the quality of supportive oncology care. Review of the literature in this area has documented important advances in supportive oncology. This article focuses on work by the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care and the National Quality Forum. The mandate to improve the quality of care in oncology has been the focus of several national reports, including those by the Institute of Medicine addressing end-of-life care in cancer and cancer survivorship. Patients with cancer face significant needs for support in areas such as pain and symptom management and psychosocial and spiritual support, as well as diverse quality-of-life concerns. These reports recommending changes in practice have been reinforced by clinical practice guidelines developed by the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care and preferred practices defined by the National Quality Forum. This article applies these national mandates and guidelines to the field of supportive care in oncology. Improving the quality of supportive oncology will require commitment by oncology professionals in areas of education, clinical practice, and research.

Authors’ disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. Z.J. Chu Quality of Care Review: Some Progress, and Toward What Goal? J. Clin. Oncol., March 20, 2009; 27(9): 1524 - 1524. [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. A. Lorenz Progress in Quality-of-Care Research and Hope for Supportive Cancer Care J. Clin. Oncol., August 10, 2008; 26(23): 3821 - 3823. [Full Text] [PDF]