Elective chemotherapy admission pilot and work-flow improvements to reduce excess days.

Abstract

101 Background: The Inpatient (Inpt) Oncology Service at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, a large urban academic NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center was charged with identifying opportunities to link patient (pt) quality improvement and decreased length of stay (LOS) in pts admitted for elective chemotherapy (EC). Historically, EC admissions were delayed due to pt variables, inpt bed availability, and chemotherapy order entry errors. Often chemotherapy was not initiated until late evening on day of admission, resulting in increased LOS. Safety concerns associated with late starts included fewer pharmacy resources, lower nurse/pt ratio, and no onsite APRN. Methods: A 2-month pilot was conducted, using an intervention group (IG) and control (C) group representing usual care (UC). The IG group was a subset with oropharyngeal pts and C group, all other EC admissions. Pre-registration and bed placement processes were reviewed. Workflow changes for IG included chemotherapy order set entered in electronic medical record 48 hours before admission, labs drawn day before admission, and weekly huddle including admitting, inpt and outpatient (Outpt) teams to review upcoming week’s admissions. IG pts were pre-scheduled for am admission. Inpt oncology services incorporated admissions into morning workflow. Census was taken above cap to accommodate IG patients. Time parameters were tracked from point of pt arrival in Admitting to initiation of EC. Results: There were 32 pts in the 2-month pilot study; 14 in the IG and 9 in UC. Mean admit time was 0900 (range 0730-1030) for IG and 1200 noon (range 1000-1600) for UC. Initiation of EC before 1500 occurred in 93% of IG compared to 11% of UC pts. This resulted in an average decreased LOS for IG of 1.1 day compared to UC. Pt and family comments included appreciation of predictable admit time and LOS. Conclusions: Because of the 8-week pilot success, these EC workflow changes have been implemented across Oncology services. Weekly huddles and coordination of clinical services across inpt and outpt settings continue to show advantage of proactive planning and troubleshooting before the day of EC admission. More importantly, EC pt safety and experience has improved with these work-flow changes.