Quality indicators in health care in head and neck cancer surgery

Abstract

Most health services have experienced an increase in the costs associated with health care, which has led to the adoption of measures to optimize the cost-effectiveness of the servi- ces provided. From this perspective, the concept of value-based health care emerged. The concept of “quality in health care” has been defined as the degree to which health services increase the possibility of generating certain desired health outcomes. Quality indicators are classified into structure, process, and outcome indicators. The structure indicators refer to the characteristics of the health system or the hospital institution. Process indicators refer to those that the health service provider performs for the health care process, while outcome indicators refer to the results of the process in the patient. The objective of this review is to provide a conceptual framework to give a context to the concept of health quality indicators and the role they play in head and neck surgical oncology. The system should aspire to achieve greater compliance with quality indicators in head and neck cancer surgery, espe- cially in referral tertiary institutions. Applying quality indicators in head and neck cancer management would improve both user perception and satisfaction, as well as improve on- cological results in these patients.