Safety and outcomes of a cancer patient urgent care clinic.

Abstract

6542 Background: Several cancer centers describe cancer-patient dedicated urgent care clinic (UCC) that address commonly anticipated complaints of adults with cancer. UCC may be capable of preventing some ED visits, but little is known of the safety and outcomes for patients after a UCC visit. Methods: We identified UCC visits made by adults at our comprehensive cancer center between 2013-2016 and compared the cohort to patients who did not visit the UCC. We linked patients to tumor registry data and their electronic health record from the UCC visit, then tracked ED visits, inpatient and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions occurring within 24 hours of the UCC visit. Results: Between 2013-2016, 551 patients generated 772 UCC visits, compared to 17,496 who did not visit. UCC users had significantly (p<0.001) more advanced-stage cancer than non-UCC users (37.3% vs 18.9%), but there were no significant differences in mean age, race/ethnicity, or death within 180 days of diagnosis. The most common chief complaints accounted for nearly half of all UCC visits: (17.4%), URI symptoms/fever (12.6%), nausea/vomiting/diarrhea (7.8%), and fatigue/weakness (7.6%). After 10.0% of UCC visits, patients had an ED visit, while 12.3% were admitted to the hospital; only 5 UCC visits (0.7%) had an associated ICU stay. Most patients (75.7%) only had a single UCC visit, but patients who visited the UCC more often tended to have higher rates of ED visits and hospitalizations within 24 hours (Table). The mean time from UCC arrival to ED arrival was 3.0 hours, and 6.5 hours from UCC arrival to inpatient arrival. Conclusions: The majority of patients seen in UCC did not require ED or inpatient hospitalization. Patients with subsequent ED or inpatient visits had minimal delays in care. Findings suggest that triaging cancer patients for commonly anticipated complaints to a UCC does not result in high rates of mis-triaging or major delays in care. Patients with ED, Inpatient, or ICU visit after UCC, stratified by UCC visits per patient (2013-2016). [Table: see text]