Streamlining urgent, same day oncology admissions from an ambulatory clinic and patient safety, patient experience, and team communication.

Abstract

394 Background: The urgent, same-day, admission process for an ambulatory oncology patient is complex. Between January 1, 2021 and November 8, 2022, at least 35 safety reports were filed relating to urgent, same-day admissions yielding a rate of 1.72% of direct admissions resulting in a safety report. Issues included communication breakdowns (e.g. insufficient handoff, insufficient updates on patient condition, incorrect mode of communication which led to delays in care), admissions to incorrect teams, and admissions to locations ill-equipped to manage the patient’s acuity. Another challenge is the ambulatory facility, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the admitting facility, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), are two different hospitals further complicating the admissions process. The goal was to streamline the urgent, same-day admission process, set expectations for the interdisciplinary teams involved, and determine a process to triage high acuity patients to the emergency department (ED) when warranted. Methods: The interdisciplinary workgroup identified gaps and pain points in the current state process. This collaborative effort led to new, streamlined workflows for key stakeholders in the process. New workflows were created for outpatient nurses, outpatient providers, and inpatient nurses. An important step in the new workflows revolves around establishing the rule that patients will be routed to the ED at 5pm if no bed will become available by clinic closing. This allows the patient to receive care quicker and triages the patient to the inpatient bed queue at an earlier point in the day. These workflows were posted in clinic and inpatient areas, distributed electronically, and presented in multiple team meetings. A new safety report event type, “Admissions from Clinic,” was created in the system to identify issues related to these processes. Results: From the date of implementation of the new workflows to the time of reporting (approximately 2.5 months), there have been 4 safety reports yielding a rate of 1.68% of direct admissions leading to safety reports. Most of these reports pertained to the bed tracking system not functioning properly leading to patients showing up to the inpatient floor before their bed was ready. Overall, the new workflows are functioning efficiently with no increase in the number of patients sent to the ED due to communication of bed availability at 5pm. Conclusions: Interdisciplinary collaboration involving key stakeholders in the direct admissions process from a cancer clinic to the inpatient setting, led to a reduction in safety reports generated regarding communication, patient safety and patient experience. There was no increase in patients being triaged to the ER at the end of the day.