Oncology Nursing Society Hosts Meeting of National Healthcare Quality Leaders

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

As a leading force in the drive to bring the highest quality care to all patients, the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) hosted a multidisciplinary dialogue on measuring care at its headquarters this week. Participants included ONS members as well as external experts involved in quality measure development, benchmarking, and improvement.

Speakers represented the Joint Commission; Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute; American Society of Clinical Oncology-Quality Oncology Practice Initiative; American Medical Association-Physicians Consortium; the Veterans Health Administration; Nursing Alliance for Quality Care; and the American Nurses Association National Center for Nursing Quality, National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators, and Quality Safety Nursing Education.

”It has been an exciting day with lots of information and communication among national healthcare quality experts,” said Paula Rieger, RN, MSN, CAE, FAAN, chief executive officer of ONS. “It is clear that there are many opportunities for the healthcare team to collectively address quality issues that are important to people experiencing cancer.”

The meeting helped to highlight the current state of quality measurement and quality improvement in nursing and cancer care and provided direction for future quality initiative efforts that might be considered for ONS strategic planning. The multidisciplinary audience agreed upon the common goal to identify and implement the best available evidence-based best practices to promote high quality cancer care.

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