Objective
To test the association between hospital type and performance of candidate quality measures for treatment of muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) using a large national tumor registry. Proposed quality measures include receipt of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, timely treatment, adequate lymph node dissection, and continent urinary diversion.
Methods
Using the National Cancer Database (NCDB), patients with stage ≥II urothelial carcinoma treated with radical cystectomy (RC) from 2003–2010 were identified. Hospitals were grouped by type and annual RC volume: community, comprehensive low volume (CLV), comprehensive high volume (CHV), academic low volume (ALV), and academic high volume (AHV) groups. Logistic regression models were used to test the association between hospital group and performance of quality measures, adjusting for year, demographic, and clinical/pathologic characteristics; generalized estimating equations were fitted to the models to adjust for clustering at the hospital level.
Results
23,279 patients underwent RC at community (12.4%), comprehensive (CLV: 38%; CHV: 5%), and academic (ALV: 17%; AHV: 28%) hospitals. While only 0.8% (n=175) of patients met all 4 quality criteria, 61% of patients treated at AHV hospitals met ≥2 quality metric indicators compared to ALV (45%), CHV (44%), CLV (38%), and community (37%) hospitals (p<0.001). Following adjustment, patients were more likely to receive ≥2 quality measures when treated at AHV (OR 2.4 [CI 2.0–2.9]), ALV (OR 1.3 [CI 1.1–1.6]), and CHV (OR 1.3 [CI 1.03–1.7]) hospitals compared to community hospitals.
Conclusions
Patients undergoing RC at AHV hospitals were more likely to meet quality criteria. However, performance remains low across hospital types, highlighting the opportunity to improve quality of care for MIBC.