Medstar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC
Hira Latif , Maya Beplat , Prabhjyot Singh , Asma Ali Dilawari
Background: Cancer and long-term sequalae of its treatment impact the future health and psychosocial wellness of these survivors. ASCO guidelines recommend providing survivorship care to cancer patients who have completed treatment with curative intent. The Commission on Cancer (COC) recommends that survivorship care including treatment summaries be delivered to 50% of eligible patients. In our ASCO Quality Training Program project, we aimed to achieve this COC goal of 50% for the year 2018. Methods: Baseline data collected from Jan 1, 2016 to June 30, 2018 indicated that 33% of hematologic malignancy survivors at WCI received treatment summaries and survivorship care. For the year 2018, there were 11 survivors of hematologic malignancy, and 4 of them (36%) had received survivorship care prior to initiation of the project. We surveyed 12 providers to obtain data for perceived challenges to deliver survivorship care. Large volume of patients, lack of resources, no standardized process and high no-show rates were identified as the most important barriers. A bi-monthly survivorship clinic run by hematology/oncology fellows was initiated in September 2018 to address some of these barriers. Patient referral forms were mounted in the clinic work rooms to assist providers with identifying patients that qualify for survivorship; a pathway for referrals to the survivorship clinic was created and providers were informed about the clinic. Information flyers regarding survivorship care and the clinic were placed in the waiting room to increase awareness amongst patients. Results: By November 30, 2018, 63% of hematological cancer survivors received survivorship care and treatment summaries. Compared to the average from the preceding two years, survivorship care delivery increased by 30%. Conclusions: Our institution was able to meet the COC requirement by delivering survivorship care to 63% of survivors of hematological malignancies through the intervention from this quality improvement study. We intend to extend this process to other tumor types to increase the delivery of consolidated survivorship care at the WCI.
Disclaimer
This material on this page is ©2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology, all rights reserved. Licensing available upon request. For more information, please contact licensing@asco.org
Abstract Disclosures
2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
First Author: Renee Gilbert
2023 ASCO Quality Care Symposium
First Author: Laura LaNiel Tenner
2023 ASCO Quality Care Symposium
First Author: Susan K. Parsons
2024 ASCO Quality Care Symposium
First Author: Michelle Payan