Download Breast Cancer Treatment Summary: Pilot Project

Breast Cancer Treatment
Summary: Pilot Project
St. Francis Cancer Center
Stormont Vail Cancer Center
January 2010
Background





Increasing numbers of men and women are longterm breast cancer survivors
Survivorship is a phenomenon attracting
professional and lay attention
Communication between Oncologists and PCPs is
essential for continuity of care
Survivors need information about their treatment,
follow up, signs of recurrence and potential late
adverse effects of treatment(s)
ASCO (2008) developed treatment plan and
summary templates
Preliminary Comments


Survivorship Committee gathered initial professional
responses re: ASCO’s treatment summary initiative
via conference calls, small group meetings
Responses mixed


Most oncology providers agree that communication
between PCPs, survivors and oncologists is important and
support the summaries in theory
Reluctant to use forms related to:
 Staff time to complete
 Perceived as another form that intrudes into practice
time/day
 Duplication of information that is already contained in
oncologists’ progress notes that are forwarded to PCPs
Project Purpose




To determine the amount of time needed to
complete the breast cancer treatment
summary following neoadjuvant or adjuvant
treatment
To determine which staff is most likely to
complete the treatment summary
To determine PCPs’ and survivors’ perceived
usefulness of summaries
To report findings to Survivorship Committee
Project Design



Utilize ASCO’s Breast Cancer Treatment
Summary
Target Population: Individuals completing
neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment
(chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal
therapy) for breast cancer
Clinic RNs at SFCCC & Nurse Navigators at
SVCCC were designated to complete
summaries
Methodology

Tracking Excel Spreadsheet including
 Patient Name
 Type of treatment (neo vs adjuvant)
 Completion of treatment date
 Amount of time to complete treatment summary
 Date that summary and letter of explanation mailed or faxed to
PCP
 PCP comments re: usefulness of summary




SFCCC utilized email as means of obtaining PCP comments
SVCCC
Date that patient received summary in person or when mailed
Patient comments re: usefulness of summary
Project Results

# treatment summaries completed


Time to complete summaries


None
Patient responses


Clinic RNs / Nurse Navigators
PCP responses


35 to 60 minutes
Type of staff completing summary


37 treatment summaries completed
One response reported as “pleasantly ambivalent”
Staff responses

“A lot of work for time spent with no perceived real benefit.”
Project Summary




ASCO template design geared for
professionals vs lay
Need more user friendly summaries for
survivors with specific reportable s/s and
methods of surveillance
Usefulness to PCPs unknown
Treatment summary duplicates information in
progress notes