Redesigning care coordination from the patient’s perspective.

Abstract

6 Background: Cancer patients are frequently admitted to the hospital requiring medical oncologists to take an active role in coordinating with multiple teams. In an effort to redesign care to put patients at the center and address increasing demands on our medical oncologist’s time, we created the Oncology Coordinator (OC) role focused on care setting transitions. We aimed to evaluate whether the OC would improve quality of care and decrease healthcare utilization. Methods: The OCs, are non-clinical and serve as a single point of contact for disease-based teams as patients prepare for elective admissions or discharge from the hospital. The 3 OCs received specialized training in systems and processes in both settings. They coordinate outpatient appointments, prescription delivery, transportation while also providing clinical support. Additionally, they facilitate two interdisciplinary rounds per day across three dedicated oncology units and assist with patients off-unit. We evaluated all patient discharges facilitated by the OCs during 1/1/19-2/29/20 and compared that to non-OC facilitated discharges. Using descriptive statistics, we evaluated the OCs impact on 7- and 30-day readmissions, discharge before noon rate (DBN), average time from admission to chemotherapy start and patient experience as measured by Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). Results: We had a total of 2,818 discharges between 1/1/19-2/29/20; 1,032 (36.6%) facilitated by the OCs. For those OC facilitated discharges we observed a 5.07% reduction in 7-day readmissions and 30-day readmissions (2.6%). We observed an overall higher average monthly rate of DBN (4.85%) compared to non-OC facilitated discharges. In addition, the average time from admission to chemotherapy administration decreased by 1 hour 31 minutes (6.8%) for the OC facilitated admissions. In the HCAHPS survey, there were improvements in Discharge Information and Care Transitions on the inpatient units where OCs were most active. Conclusions: At our academic medical center, the OCs have contributed to reduction in readmissions, time from admission to chemotherapy administration as well as improvements in discharges before noon and patient experience. This pilot demonstrates that investment in dedicated lay staff to facilitate admissions and discharges for cancer patients across care settings could lead to meaningful improvements in healthcare utilization, quality and the patient experience. Future work will evaluate the sustainability of this program and evaluate association with healthcare costs.