Survivorship care plan (SCP) program development within a large hospital network.

Abstract

42 Background: Barriers to SCP delivery are pervasive, with limited data available on strategies to address implementation barriers. Despite the variety of models for SCP-based survivorship care planning, there is a dearth of studies on SCP program development for larger hospital networks. Large networked hospital systems, including the Levine Cancer Institute (LCI), have unique challenges for implementing a SCP program. Methods: Beginning in 2014, LCI implemented a process for delivery of SCPs across its network of 8 Commission on Cancer accredited hospitals. Obstacles to implementation were evaluated and methods of establishing procedures for insuring SCP delivery were reviewed. Improvement in SCP delivery was measured over 3 years. SCP program development involved leveraging technology, developing processes for identifying eligible survivors, and engaging providers and practice managers in this key organizational initiative. Results: In 2014, the SCP program consisted of 3 advanced care providers (ACPs) in 3 LCI medical oncology clinics, delivering SCPs to 67 (2%) of the eligible 3,336 survivors. In the second year of implementation, 14 ACPs and 4 MDs delivered 348 (11%) SCPs to eligible survivors in 14 LCI clinics. By the end of the 2016 calendar year, it is estimated that > 1,029 SCPs ( > 25%) of eligible survivors will receive a SCP throughout the LCI hospital network. Conclusions: While challenging to deliver, SCPs are important both for cancer program accreditation and for communication between patients and physicians. At its large, multi-center cancer program, LCI has implemented a number of methods and protocols to insure that eligible patients receive informative and timely SCPs. LCI’s processes have resulted in an improvement in the number of SCPs delivered and have also served to eliminate obstacles to increasing the number of SCPs that will be delivered in the future. It is recommended that oncology practices consider the methods and interventions that LCI found helpful to improve SCP delivery in large hospital networks. It is also encouraged that oncology practices to continue to share their methods with other centers to promote eventual SCP delivery to eligible survivors.