Finding common ground: Aligning institutional and survivorship steering committee (SSC) goals.

Abstract

80 Background: Developing a Survivorship program goes beyond providing survivorship care plans to patients upon completion of cancer treatment. Programs can take many forms; ranging from very robust with long-term follow-up to minimal, with patients returning to the primary care provider when cancer-specific treatment is complete. To develop our program at an academic medical center with 2900 annual new cancer patients, we chose to enlist a SSC of survivors to help shape our program. Methods: In addition to fulfilling the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer Standard 3.3 requirements, we also desire to meet the needs of the patient. Thus, the survivorship program coordinator requested that providers within the Cancer Institute (CI) identify patients to form a SSC. 13 physicians contributed a total of 14 patients as candidates. Each patient was invited to participate and 7 accepted. The initial SSC meeting was held 6 months after initiation of our survivorship program. Results: SSC members represented 5 different primary malignancies and had varying degrees of experience within the treatment continuum. The initial meeting began with an overview of the current services available in the CI. Members were also given the opportunity to share treatment & survivorship experiences. Some of the SSC members utilized patient navigation during CI initial intake; others had experience with CI support groups. Some used ancillary services such as physical therapy, integrative health, financial counselors, and social services; others were not aware these services were available. A list of 4 categories of goals for program development was suggested with a meeting planned again in one year to review progress. Meeting one year later, the group determined progress was made in 3/4 (75%) of the goals. Conclusions: When creating a Survivorship program, patient goals should be considered and aligned with institutional and accreditation goals. One way to ensure that this is accomplished is to enlist front-end input from a SSC that represents a wide variety of treatment experiences and providers. In our experience, this strategy leads to alignment of patient and programmatic goals resulting in increased patient satisfaction and program quality.