Review Articles The Benchmark Analysis of Gastric, Colorectal and Rectal Cancer Pathways: Toward Establishing Standardized Clinical Pathway in the Cancer Care

Most clinical pathways in treating cancers in Japan are based on individual physician’s per-sonal experiences rather than on an empirical analysis of clinical data such as benchmark comparison with other hospitals. Therefore, these pathways are far from being standardized. By comparing detailed clinical data from five cancer centers, we have observed various differ-ences among hospitals. By conducting benchmark analyses, providing detailed feedback to the participating hospitals and by repeating the benchmark a year later, we strive to develop more standardized clinical pathways for the treatment of cancers. The Cancer Quality Initiative was launched in 2007 by five cancer centers. Using diagnosis procedure combi-nation data, the member hospitals benchmarked their pre-operative and post-operative length of stays, the duration of antibiotics administrations and the post-operative fasting dur-ation for gastric, colon and rectal cancers. The benchmark was conducted by disclosing hos-pital identities and performed using 2007 and 2008 data. In the 2007 benchmark, substantial differences were shown among five hospitals in the treatment of gastric, colon and rectal cancers. After providing the 2007 results to the participating hospitals and organizing several brainstorming discussions, significant improvements were observed in the 2008 data study