How are you improving your patients’ experience?

on May 15, 2013  |  Permalink  | Comments (1)

Topics: Oncology, Service Lines, Quality, Performance Improvement, Patient-Focused Care, Methodologies

According to preliminary data from our Patient Experience Quick Poll, over half of all cancer programs provide cancer patients with a dedicated phone line to call if they have urgent symptom needs and almost a quarter have hired clinicians just to treat patients with urgent symptom needs. 

How are you improving your patients’ care experience?

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How are you improving your patients’ experience?

Increasing patient access to test results is a double-edged sword for physicians

on September 6, 2012  |  Permalink

Topics: Oncology, Service Lines, Patient-Focused Care, Methodologies, Performance Improvement

Deirdre Fuller, Oncology Roundtable

Augmenting patient access to lab tests aims to decrease time spent anxiously awaiting results; however, it also runs the risk of overwhelming patients with complex data they are ill-equipped to interpret.

Recent changes to federal regulations will increase patients’ access to lab results without requiring physician consent. Currently, each state has different mandates when it comes to patient testing:

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Increasing patient access to test results is a double-edged sword for physicians

Clinic telephone call benchmarks and lessons for management

Lindsay Conway on February 27, 2012  |  Permalink

Topics: Oncology, Service Lines, Patient-Focused Care, Methodologies, Performance Improvement, Access to Care, Quality

In recent years, oncology clinic staff have experienced a steady rise in the number of phone calls that they receive from patients and families each day.  There are many factors contributing to this increase including, the shift of cancer care into the outpatient setting, growing treatment complexity, and rising use of oral therapies. Ensuring that patients and families’ concerns are addressed in a timely way is an essential component of high quality cancer care, yet due to the sheer volume of calls, it is becoming increasingly difficult  for clinic staff to manage incoming phone calls along with their many other duties.

In order to help members manage increasing call volumes, the Oncology Roundtable undertook a review of recent journal articles on the topic.  Key findings and analysis are summarized below.

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Clinic telephone call benchmarks and lessons for management