Quality of Care

1. Build Programs that Set National Standards for Quality of Care

Strategies

• Expand our ability to track clinical results and compare our results with those of other leading children's hospitals
• Make targeted investments in clinical programs to ensure that our quality of care and patient outcomes are among the best in the nation

Initiatives

• Develop and track benchmarks for all of Seattle Children's clinical programs and ensure that these outcomes are shared openly
• Standardize care processes to improve quality and safety

Outcomes that exceed the national average

When Mary-Elizabeth Sierra Lanham had her eyes checked for nearsightedness, the routine exam showed that the optic nerve in her right eye was swollen.

A string of visits to different specialists led to an MRI that finally explained the problem — a lump in her head was pressing against a major vein.

Mary-Elizabeth Sierra Lanham

That was when mom Sally Lanham brought Mary-Elizabeth to Children's, where blood and bone marrow samples confirmed that her daughter had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a type of cancer where malignant white blood cells, or "lymphoblasts," are produced in the bone marrow and can spread into the bloodstream and vital organs.

ALL accounts for approximately 25% of all childhood cancer.

Although Lanham didn't know it, her decision to switch Mary-Elizabeth's care to Children's may have saved her daughter's life: Teenagers and young adults have a much better chance of beating ALL — more than 25% better — when they receive pediatric cancer treatments rather than those intended for adults.

Separate studies in North America, France, the Netherlands and Italy confirm these findings.

Among institutions treating teens for cancer, Children's has some of the best survival rates in the nation — in fact, ours are far higher than the national average.

The five-year survival rate for ALL patients ages 15 to 19, diagnosed from 1996 through 2002 and treated at Children's, is 85%. The national average for the same group is just 55%.

For all forms of childhood cancer combined, Children's five-year survival rate is 82%, well above the national average of 76.4%.