ifkad articles

A Framework of Indicators to Evaluate the Integrated Care Pathways in a Cancer Research Centre

Valeria Zaza, Maddalena Bisceglie, Francesco Schiavone, Ilaria Giannoccaro

Integrated Care Pathways (ICPs) are multidisciplinary approaches designed and adopted by hospitals for achieving more efficiency and effectiveness in the care processes. Despite these advantages, it is still needed to demonstrate their economical and organizational positive effect, by taking into account specific contextual variables such as the existing resources and technologies of the hospitals (van Hoeve et al., 2020). In addition, since the complexity of the care processes is high, the development of an integrated dashboard of monitoring indicators of ICPs is a critical issue in the referred literature. In particular, the framework should be holistic and designed for a large spectrum use of actors; the indicators should be easily measurable and computable. For this reason, we design a framework of indicators measuring the effect of ICPs on multiple dimensions including quality of care, cost and productivity, and research and development.The framework was validated by a group of experts belonging to different functional areas. Afterward, we investigate the feasibility of the proposed set of indicators to the performance of the lung and the breast cancer care pathways in a specific hospital, i.e., the Cancer Institute “IRCCS Giovanni Paolo II” (Italy). The healthcare organization can use this tool to 1) monitor whether the pathways meet the requirements of continuity, responsiveness, and appropriateness of health services; and 2) optimize the allocation of resources.

IN: Proceedings IFKAD 2021 – Managing Knowledge in Uncertain Times
PP: 1581-1600