Now in its 13th year, the ACCC Innovator Award program recognizes visionary and compelling ideas in oncology from its Cancer Program Members nationwide. Innovations advance the goal(s) of improving access, quality, and value in cancer care delivery. Winners are peer-reviewed and selected by a Task Force of ACCC members. In 2023, the Task Force honored these six forward-thinking programs and practices, which will present their innovations at the ACCC 40th National Oncology Conference (http://accc.org/NOC), Oct. 4-6, in Austin, Texas.
A Model for Demonstrating Sustainable Outreach for Cancer Screening. For several years, St. Elizabeth Cancer Center struggled to find a sustainable program to perform outreach to patients with outstanding orders for lung, breast, and colon cancer screenings. A financial analysis of associated expenses, reimbursement, payer mixture, and downstream revenue of these screening efforts demonstrated positive net return on investment, allowing for expansion and implementation of a Population Health Support Services team to perform this task. In 2022, 12 outreach specialists scheduled visits that accounted for 38% of completed lung cancer screenings and 15% of completed breast cancer screenings for this healthcare system.
An Advanced Practice Radiation Therapist Role Improves Quality, Efficiency, Wellness, and Administrative Outcomes. Radiation Oncology Services at Mount Sinai Health System created the first advanced practice radiation therapist (APRT) role in the United States, establishing a new model of inpatient care, elevating the radiation therapy skill set, allowing for intervention at key points along the radiation oncology care pathway. Outcomes include improved quality, efficiency, and time and cost savings toward value-based care. Working in tandem with a rotation of radiation oncologists, the APRT aims to save physician time-and reduce physician burnout-by task-shifting and assuming lower-level responsibilities that support the care of resource intensive patient populations.
Closing the Testing Gap: Standardization of Comprehensive Biomarker Testing in NSCLC. Oncology Hematology Care, Inc's. (OHC) one-year quality improvement (QI) project implemented and standardized comprehensive biomarker testing in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Custom data reports and monitoring dashboards ensured practice-wide adoption and sustainability across multiple clinic sites. After increasing biomarker testing rates from 68% to 92.7%, this QI project is now being scaled across the country through The US Oncology Network, McKesson as a best-practice initiative.
Collaborative Care: A Model for Embedding Counseling in Oncology and Palliative Care. Rochester Regional Health - Lipson Cancer Institute adapted the University of Washington's Collaborative Care model (https://aims.uw.edu/collaborative-care) to embed counseling services into oncology and palliative care across six clinic locations. This model allows patients to receive counseling for depression, anxiety, or other psycho-social concerns while in active treatment and survivorship, eliminating many barriers to care. Counseling is provided in-person or virtually, ensuring that critical support and mental health care are accessible to all, including patients in rural areas and those who are homebound.
Leveraging Technology to Develop an Express Symptom Management Program and Prevent Oncology ED Visits. Orlando Health Cancer Institute developed a business intelligence-enabled dashboard that collected and analyzed data on emergency department (ED) visits, admits, and discharges. These data were then used to improve patient triage and evaluation through the creation of the Express Symptom Management program. After targeted in-service training and education to clinical teams and patients on utilization of this new program, only 2% of patients needed to be seen in the ED, with the rest receiving symptom management by phone, participating in a virtual clinic visit, and/or coming into the infusion suite for in-person assessment and treatment. Improvement efforts around patient self-management and triage to the Express Symptom Management program also included development of a pre- and post-initial infusion visit via Epic MyChart.
e-Consults for Immune-Related Toxicities Improve Patient Access and Reduce Costs. Endocrine immune-related adverse events (irAEs) are noted in 4% to 14.6% of patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, leading to 12.2% of irAE-related admissions. With the understanding that delayed access, diagnosis, and management are often causes of preventable hospital admissions in patients with cancer, the Duke Endo Oncology Program at the Duke Cancer Institute implemented e-consults for patients experiencing endocrine irAEs. These e-consults improved patient access and reduced healthcare utilization. Specifically, time to appointment and hospitalizations were reduced from 61 days to 39 days and from 11% to 2%, respectively. To propel integration and scalability, the next step is to ensure adequate reimbursement from payers for these types of e-consults.
In addition to these ACCC Innovator Award Winner sessions, a Workforce Development track will address topics like developing an oncology pipeline, improving your recruitment efforts and processes, keeping up with compensation best practices, taking your recruitment program to the next level, hardwiring the employee relationship through effective leadership, and more. To engage with colleagues and learn more about these innovative and replicable healthcare solutions, register today for the ACCC 40th National Oncology Conference, October 4-6, in Austin, Texas.
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* An entire track devoted to workforce issues from pipeline development to recruitment, retention, and leadership programs.
* New this year! Poster presentations on quality and process improvement efforts.