National Quality Improvement Participation Among US Radiation Oncology Facilities: Compliance with Guideline-Concordant Palliative Radiation Therapy for Bone Metastases

Purpose To characterize the participation of radiation oncology (RO) in reporting quality metrics through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Hospital Compare database and to describe the association of hospital characteristics with RO-specific quality metrics. Methods and Materials Data from the CMS Hospital Compare, International Atomic Energy Agency’s Directory of Radiotherapy Centre, 2010 US Census, and CMS Inpatient Prospective Payment System were linked to create an integrated data set of geographic information, facility characteristics, and quality measures, focusing on the use of external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for bony metastases. Results Of 4829 hospitals in the Hospital Compare database, 2030 had access to radiation therapy. Among these, 814 (40%) reported on the rate of guideline-concordant EBRT for bony metastases, a RO-specific quality measure. A total of 33,614 eligible cases of bony metastases treated with EBRT were sampled. Participation in quality reporting varied significantly by geography, population type, teaching status, hospital ownership, hospital type, and hospital size. The median rate of guideline-concordant palliative EBRT utilization was 89%. Nine percent of 814 centers had a compliance rate of less than 50%. On multivariable analysis, increasing number of cases sampled (odds ratio 0.93, P = .028), increasing hospital star-rating, and above-average patient experience rating (odds ratio 0.58, P = .024) remained significantly associated with decreased odds of falling into the lowest quartile of guideline-concordant EBRT utilization. Conclusions RO participation in a large, national quality improvement effort is nascent and reveals potential quality gaps between hospitals offering palliative EBRT for bone metastases. More robust RO-specific quality measures are needed.