%0 Journal Article
%T Benchmarking our urological care: It¡¯s just the beginning
%A Christopher M. Booth
%A D. Robert Siemens
%J Archive of "Canadian Urological Association Journal".
%D 2017
%R 10.5489/cuaj.4803
%X In this issue of CUAJ, readers will come across an interesting exercise in performance measurement focused on the surgical management of kidney cancer. Lawson et al1 report on a benchmarking project within the Canadian Kidney Cancer information system (CKCis), a mostly prospective database from a cohort of patients managed in 16 different tertiary care hospitals across Canada. The clinical-pathological variables collected within the dataset allow significant depth and breadth in this quality review of surgical care. The authors assessed each hospital¡¯s performance on a number of previously defined quality indicators: processes of care, such as use of partial nephrectomy for localized tumours, as well as specific outcomes, including warm ischemia time and complications. In order to create benchmarks to compare ¡°performance,¡± the authors used the rich variables in the dataset to control for case-mix and formulate indirect standardization of indicators (conceptually the average performance across the centres). Using this methodology, they demonstrate some variability in the observed-to-expected performance in participating hospitals, including the use of nephron-sparing techniques in those at higher risk of future renal impairment
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5542823/