Addressing patient needs through compilation of self-reported verbatim comments.

Abstract

111 Background: Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Inc. (CTCA) is a national network of five hospitals that specialize in the treatment of patients fighting complex or advanced-stage cancer. The Symptom Inventory Tool (SIT) is an assessment that captures the patients’ perceived symptom burden, from baseline and every 21 days thereafter. The SIT is comprised of questions utilizing the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory tool, with eight questions and a free text box added by CTCA. Patient comments are provided in approximately 5% of all assessments (representing 3,700 comments) since initiation of the SIT. Methods: Patients answer the question, “Is there anything else that you would like to tell us or are there additional concerns you would like addressed?” within a free text field. In addition to availability to the care team to address any identified urgent need, each comment is classified into 15 defined categories to allow trending. The report is disseminated monthly to a multi-disciplinary team for follow-up on service delivery and consideration in program development. Results: The table represents the top five patient comment categories along with “other”. In addition, a sample of last quarter's data revealed that 84% of comments required immediate follow-up that may have otherwise been missed without text data mining. Conclusions: Verbatim comments are of significant value and can be best managed via dual processes to ensure timely follow-up and to support programmatic alignment, continuously analyzing data for areas of improvement. [Table: see text]