uj Sharma Singh1 , Ashish Gupta2 , Barsha Sarma3 , Kanakeshwar Bhuyan4 , Bibhash Chandra Goswami5
BACKGROUND Quality assurance aims to improve patient outcomes, patient experience and treatment cost. A key factor reflecting the quality of care in the management of patients is the timeliness. This study assesses the quality of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment according to quality indices and also evaluates timeliness of treatment in breast cancer cases at our institute. METHODS Breast cancer patients registered in State Cancer Institute in the year 2018 were evaluated. A cohort of 205 patients met our inclusion criteria, which was followed up for one year. RESULTS 95.12% patients were operated after proper record of histopathology, grade, stage, ER and PR status. 98% had positive cyto/histological diagnosis before surgery. 37.2% patients of invasive ca ≤ 3 cms underwent breast conserving surgery. Average time taken for start of treatment after first visit is 42.23 ± 8.6 days. During one year follow up, 5 patients expired whereas 11 developed metastasis/local recurrence. CONCLUSIONS In the treatment outcomes, our institute met with nearly all the quality indices of international standards except breast conserving surgery rates. There is wide scope of improvement in expediting start of treatment.
