Applying the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons quality outcomes metrics to a regional Australian oncology and reconstructive service: benchmarking the data to audit clinical outcomes in emerging, regional, and small-volume centres

The traditional model of centralisation of care, whilst having many advantages, also requires adaptation and upscaling to meet the requirements of both regional areas and the increasing urban sprawl. However, to ensure comparable outcomes with current major centres, this transition, when required, must be delivered in a safe and effective manner. Our project, which utilised the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) recently published outcome data from the Quality and Outcomes in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (QOMS) project to benchmark data prospectively collected from a small-volume, emerging centre in Northern Queensland, was the first of its kind in terms of validation studies. As expected, the small volume of our centre impacted the ability to derive powerful statistical models and comparators, an intrinsic limitation for small-volume centres whilst they are developing services. However, during this evolution project, the use of comparison metrics allowed for the detection of alert and alarm levels, which are invaluable to ensure patient safety and quality of outcome. Our paper demonstrated that, irrespective of size or volume, the utilisation of quality assurance metrics (national or international) provides for the safe and transparent upscaling of head and neck services in emerging, regional, and small-volume centres.