Quality Improvement
The Integration of Survivorship Care Planning at a Comprehensive Cancer Center
Elizabeth B. McGrath, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, AOCNP®, ACHPN, Anna Schaal, MSN, APRN, and Claire Pace, MSN, APRN
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel School of Medicine, Lebanon, New Hampshire
Authors’ disclosures of conflicts of interest are found at the end of this article.
Elizabeth B. McGrath, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, AOCNP®, ACHPN, 1 Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756.
E-mail: elizabeth.b.mcgrath@hitchcock.org
J Adv Pract Oncol 2019;10(5):461–468 |
https://doi.org/10.6004/jadpro.2019.10.5.4 |
© 2019 Harborside™
ABSTRACT
Abstract
Research has demonstrated that cancer survivors who receive a survivorship care plan (SCP) have better coordinated follow-up care, higher overall satisfaction, and report significantly fewer posttreatment emotional concerns. The Commission on Cancer, a program of the American College of Surgeons, has developed a standard of care in which 100% of eligible patients are to receive an SCP by the end of 2019. Nurse practitioners at a National Cancer Institute (NCI)–designated academic medical center worked to develop a standardized process to deliver SCPs to all eligible patients. The primary objective of the project was to standardize how SCPs were completed and embed them into the electronic medical record (EMR) using a templated note created for the EMR. Through an interdisciplinary steering committee, survivorship priorities were established and aligned with LIVESTRONG and American Society of Clinical Oncology guidelines. In addition, survivorship care planning was identified as an essential service to be provided by all cancer disease management groups (DMG) at the cancer center. A cancer SCP subcommittee was formed to explore methods to expand the delivery of SCPs and standardize the SCP process. Prior to this project, SCPs were being done by less than 10% of the providers and only for a few diagnoses, and no standardized method of documentation existed prior to this quality improvement initiative. The standardization of the SCP has increased both participation of other DMGs as well as increased the rate of completion to 34%. We believe that continuous reassessment and process improvement will help us reach the Commission on Cancer goal of providing SCPs to all eligible patients.
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