Institute Quality Initiatives

Reducing Time-to-Treatment for Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients

Median Days to First Treatment by Quarter

2016-2021

An initial diagnosis of cancer is a time when patients are often desperate for answers.¹ Reducing this stress and anxiety by ensuring patients begin treatment as quickly as possible is a Taussig Cancer Institute imperative. Using the Institute's Cancer Tumor Registry and propriety Cancer Data Warehouse, the difference between the date of first positive biopsy and the first day the patient received any cancer-related treatment is measured quarterly for all patients diagnosed with or treated for cancer at Cleveland Clinic's main campus or family health centers.

After median days to first treatment is calculated for all disease groups, the multidisciplinary teams work to increase access and improve efficiency to reduce the time to treatment. These intensive efforts to identify and solve institutional causes for treatment delays have reduced the median time to treatment initiation from 40 days to 32 days.