Background: Patients want information to search for destination of care for breast-conserving surgery (BCS). To inform patients wanting a lumpectomy, we aimed to develop a pilot project that communicated composite quality measure (QM) results using a '4-star' rating system. Two patient-centered QMs were included in the model-reoperation rate (ROR) and cosmetic outcome (COSM).
Methods: A prospective database was reviewed for stage 0-3 patients undergoing initial lumpectomy by three surgeons from 2010 to 2015. Self-reported COSM was assessed by survey. Multivariate analyses were used to test for interactions between surgeon and other variables known to influence RORs and COSMs. Models of surgeon profiling were developed that summed the ROR and COSM performance scores, then reported results using a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) star-type system. Functionality for a patient to 'weight' the importance of the ratio of ROR:COSM before profiling was introduced.
Results: The unadjusted ROR for stage 1-3 patients for three surgeons was 9.5, 13.0, and 16.3%, respectively (p = 0.179) [overall rate 10.4% (38/366)]. After risk adjustment, differences between surgeons were observed for RORs, but not COSMs. Overall, patients reported excellent, good, fair, and poor COSMs of 55, 30, 11 and 4%, respectively. Composite star scores reflected differences in performance by surgeon, which could increase, or even disappear, dependent on the patient's weighting of the ROR:COSM ratio.
Conclusion: Composite measures of performance can be developed that allow patients to input their weighted preferences and values into surgeon profiling before they consider a destination of care for BCS.