Identifying best performing hospitals in colorectal cancer care; is it possible?

Background: Comparing outcomes across hospitals to learn from best performing hospitals can be valuable. However, reliably identifying best performance is challenging. This study assesses the possibility to distinguish best performing hospitals on single outcomes and consistency of performance on different outcomes.

Surgeon perceived most important factors to achieve the best hospital performance on colorectal cancer surgery: a Dutch modified Delphi method.

Objectives: Hospital variation in risk-adjusted outcomes after colorectal cancer surgery has been shown. However, explanatory factors are not sufficiently clear. The objective of this study was to identify factors perceived by gastrointestinal surgeons as important to achieve excellent casemix-adjusted outcomes after colorectal cancer surgery.

Hospital variation and the impact of postoperative complications on the use of perioperative chemo(radio)therapy in resectable gastric cancer. Results from the Dutch Upper GI Cancer Audit.

Background: Dutch national guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer recommend the use of perioperative chemotherapy in patients with resectable gastric cancer. However, adjuvant chemotherapy is often not administered. The aim of this study was to evaluate hospital variation on the probability to receive adjuvant chemotherapy and to identify associated factors with special attention to postoperative complications.

Failure-to-rescue in patients undergoing surgery for esophageal or gastric cancer.

Background: Complex surgical procedures such as esophagectomy and gastrectomy for cancer are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate trends in postoperative morbidity, mortality, and associated failure-to-rescue (FTR), in patients who underwent a potentially curative resection for esophageal or gastric cancer in the Netherlands, and to investigate differences between the two groups.

Methods: All patients with esophageal or gastric cancer who underwent a potentially curative resection, registered in the Dutch Upper GI Cancer Audit (DUCA) between 2011 and 2014, were included.