Quality of care improvements resulting from a model of care that incorporates the primary clerk into the care team.

Authors

null

Jennifer Anne Cox

Schulich School of Medicine, Windsor Campus, Windsor, ON, Canada

Jennifer Anne Cox, Caroline Hamm

Organizations

Schulich School of Medicine, Windsor Campus, Windsor, ON, Canada, Windsor Regional Cancer Center, Windsor, ON, Canada

Research Funding

Other

Background: One common model of care within the oncology outpatient clinic setting is composed of the physician and primary nurse. We propose that the quality of care provided to oncology patients can be improved in this setting by incorporating the primary clerk into the care team, working in the same office space with the physician and nurse. Methods: Three care teams operating under the new model of care were observed during oncology outpatient clinics periodically from February 2016 to May 2016. The primary clerk’s interactions with the other team members were recorded, along with other tasks completed by the clerk that did not require team interactions but impacted quality of care. Data was later complied and organized into four domains that impacted the quality of care provided to patients. Results: The contributions to the care team by the primary clerk include improved clinic flow (e.g., ensuring treatment orders are inputted by the physician), patient convenience (e.g., identifying regularly scheduled blood work that is no longer necessary), patient safety (e.g., identifying patients scheduled for treatment with rituximab that have not had the required Hepatitis B & HIV screening), and hospital flow (e.g., preventing additional workload in the hospital laboratory by identifying when lab work can be combined in already scheduled appointments, and rescheduling clinic visits when results are not yet ready, which translates into time and cost savings to the hospital). Conclusions: As a result of the enhanced quality of care delivered, it is recommended that this model of care be adopted in the place of the traditional model, which lacks the essential element of interaction between the primary clerk and the rest of the care team.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2017 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session A: Cost, Value, and Policy in Quality; Practice of Quality

Track

Cost, Value, and Policy in Quality,Practice of Quality

Sub Track

Provider Efficiency

Citation

J Clin Oncol 35, 2017 (suppl 8S; abstract 122)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2017.35.8_suppl.122

Abstract #

122

Poster Bd #

E13

Abstract Disclosures