Centralisation of cancer surgery and the impact on patients ’ travel burden

Over the last decades, the association between hospital treatment volumes and outcomes of treatment has been widely reported, most notably with respect to complex surgical treatment and surgery-related outcome measures like postoperative mortality [1 –4]. Although the exact mechanisms underlying a volume-outcome relationship remain to be elucidated [5], observations of this association across different types of cancer surgery appeared to have provided ample warrant for the trend towards centralising these procedures in many Western countries [ 6–10].

Source: Health Policy - July 6, 2018 Category: Health Management Authors: S.E. Versteeg, V.K.Y. Ho, S. Siesling, M. Varkevisser Source Type: research