Differences in transitions of care among cancer patients with and without venous thromboembolism (VTE) events.

Abstract

e18636 Background: Transitions of care are an important part of medical care, as they provide opportunities to address patient concerns, refine goals to match current needs and prevent unforeseen complications and comorbidities. One such common and prevalent comorbidity amongst cancer patients is venous thromboembolism (VTE) events. Common VTE events include the occurrence of pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or both at the time of diagnosis or any time thereafter. It is estimated that approximately 4–20% of cancer patients will experience a VTE. Cancer patients developing VTE is a serious concern as it can adversely affect the patients’ quality of life and reduce overall survival rates and prognosis. Methods: This study is designed as a case control study. The subject group consists of 87 cancer patients who had one or several VTE events after their cancer diagnosis. Patients were selected from the UVM Medical Center electronic health record database. The goal of this project was to quantify and compare the average number of transitions of care in cancer patients with and without venous thromboembolism (VTE) events. This was achieved by reviewing the patients charts three months following a VTE event and evaluating whether these patients had a greater number of transitions compared to the three months prior to their VTE event. Transitions of care in our study were defined as office visits, ED visits, and inpatient admissions related to their VTE. Results: Initial evaluation of the results showed that there were more transitions of care amongst cancer patients with a VTE than without. Preliminary data of the 87 patients shows that patients who developed a VTE event after their cancer diagnosis had on average 1.3 more transitions of care within the three months following their VTE event compared to cancer patients without a VTE event. A t test will be used to determine whether the difference between the means (number of transitions of care) of the two groups (cancer patients with VTE and those without VTE) is significant. Conclusions: The implications of having greater transitions of care amongst cancer patients with VTE events are profound. Having more transitions of care exemplifies better implementation, patient care and involvement of health care teams given a history of VTE. Furthermore, the results of this study will provide further insight on ways to improve clinical outcomes and oncology patient care given a history of VTE.