Cancer Australia

Information about the standard of care
As part of its work in the area of quality assurance and standard of care, National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre (NBOCC)* developed a Standard of care for breast diagnostic cancer services.

The aims of the Standard for breast diagnostic services is to:

• Influence health care providers in the way they plan and deliver care
• Highlight areas for improvement and adoption of best-practice care in diagnosis of women with breast symptoms
• Improve outcomes for women with breast cancer through access to best practice care
• Provide leadership in the field of standards development for cancer care, based on existing evidence.

There are five core components of the Standard for breast diagnostic services:

1. Continuity of care
2. Clinical staff with appropriate training
3. Supportive delivery of service
4. Informed patient consent and communication
5. Safety and quality care
   

Each core component has:

• A goal – a general statement which identifies the outcome if this core component is met
• Suggested evidence – examples of documentation that could be provided by the service to demonstrate compliance
• A series of key process statements – each statement measures one aspect of care related to the overall goal
• Guidance – information for the facility on how to comply with the statement

The Standard of care for breast diagnostic services has been mapped to the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) accreditation program Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program 4th edition (EQuIP 4). Services registered with the ACHS EQuIP4 program can cross reference the standard of care for breast diagnostic services.