Aim: How to best coordinate cancer care remains a key challenge. The Cancer Institute NSW (CINSW) has moved its funding for coordinated care from a model that funds positions to one that focuses on improving performance in key areas across. CINSW commissioned the University of Sydney to identify and prioritise a set of key ‘success factors’ in the coordination of care that could be used to guide the development of Key Performance Indicators.
Method: A systematic process was used to define a set of success factors. This included: a scoping review of the literature; and a broad invitation to stakeholders to submit their own success factors. Three cycles of review were then conducted on initial success factors to reduce duplication and exclude factors not related to the coordination of care. A final set of factors was then subjected to a prioritisation process previously developed by Sydney Catalyst. This consisted of a day-long priority setting workshop attended by a purposive selection of stakeholders. Factors were prioritised against significance and ease of measurement.
Results: 45 success factors were identified through the review of literature and stakeholder input. This was refined to a final set of 20 factors. 5 success factors were identified through the consensus priority setting process.
Conclusion: This project was successful in obtaining consensus across a broad range of stakeholders in terms of the identification of success factors that are both significant and measurable. Further validation will be under taken with consumers and practitioners. This work lays strong foundations for the development of key performance indicators that can be used in funding reform being undertaken by CINSW. This is the first time such a piece of work has been performed and represents an important step in improving the coordination of cancer care and patient outcomes.