Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation Publishes Article on FACT Clinical Outcome Review Process
The journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BBMT) has electronically published the article, Integration of Publicly Reported Center Outcomes into Standards and Accreditation: The FACT Model (LeMaistre et al, 2019). Combining historical information with aggregate data collated from corrective action plans (CAPs) submitted to FACT, the article provides an overview of FACT’s process for evaluating one-year survival and preliminary themes found in CAPs.
The full abstract states:
“The rapid evolution of Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT), coupled with diverse outcomes associated with heterogeneous groups of patients, led to the formation of two important organizations early in the development of the field: the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) and the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). These organizations have addressed two of the nine elements identified by the National Quality Strategy (NQS) [1] for achieving better health care, more affordable care, and healthy people and communities: first, a registry that promotes improvement of care and, second, accreditation based on quality standards. More recently, a federally-mandated database in the United States addresses the third element of the NQS: public reporting of treatment results.
This paper describes the current process by which FACT incorporates patient outcomes reported by the CIBMTR into standards for accreditation, the requirements for accredited programs whose performance is below expected outcomes to maintain accreditation, and preliminary findings in assessing corrective action plans intended to improve outcomes.”
The paper is a useful reference for understanding FACT requirements for evaluating one-year survival, generating ideas for outcome analyses within transplant programs, and understanding the value of setting expectations for patient outcomes within the context of voluntary accreditation programs.
LeMaistre, C.F., Wacker, K., Akard, L., et al. (in press). Integration of publicly reported center outcomes into standards and accreditation: The FACT model. Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2019.06.035