Best quality care from a distance (BQua D): Maintaining high quality care for hormone receptor positive (HR+) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) during the COVID pandemic, description of the program and provider satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Background: During the COVID pandemic, we designed and implemented a program, called BQual-D, to maintain high quality care for patients with HR+, HER2 negative MBC who were taking oral anti-cancer therapy and needed to shelter at home. This program augmented available clinical resources with (1) trained nurse coaches to manage side effects, improve adherence, monitor for cancer progression and screen for psychological distress via telehealth, and (2) a care coordinator to arrange blood testing at local labs to facilitate timely medication dose adjustments. BQual-D served patients from August, 2020 through April of 2021. Here, we describe survey results assessing provider satisfaction with BQual-D. Methods: Surveys assessing provider satisfaction were distributed in December, 2020 (Survey#1) and in April, 2021 (Survey#2). Provider demographics were collected with Survey#1. Eight questions assessed satisfaction with different aspects of the BQual-D program, including content of the nurse coach notes, communication with the program, timeliness of communication, frequency of notes, ease of reading the notes, ease of Sreferring patients, and turnaround time for labs, which were rated on a Likert scale of 1 (strongly dissatisfied) to 10 (strongly satisfied), with an additional response choice of 0 (unable to assess). Providers were also asked if BQual-D led to changes in patient management (yes/no), the degree to which BQual-D supported the medical management of the patient (from 1=not at all to 7=significantly), the influence of BQual-D on patient wellbeing (positive effects, no change, negative effects), and the overall quality of care delivered by the program (from 1=excellent to 4=poor). Finally, we asked providers if they would continue to recommend their patients to BQual-D (yes, in the same way as the program has been deployed;yes but with improvements;or no). Results are described by frequencies and means. Results: Nineteen providers responded to Survey#1. Providers were physicians (31.6%), advanced practice providers (31.6%), nurses (31.6%) and a clinical pharmacist (5.3%). Respondents were 89.5% female, 94.7% White, and had a mean age of 44 years and mean 11 years in practice. Providers rated the quality of care provided by the BQual-D program as excellent (44%) or good (57%), all providers surveyed indicated that they would continue to recommend the program to patients, and 95% of providers indicated that the program had a positive effect on patients' well-being. Half of the respondents indicated that BQual-D resulted in changes in or addition to patient management and 90% indicated that BQual-D significantly supported medical management. Providers were strongly satisfied (scores of 8-10 on the Likert scale) with overall communication with the BQual-D team (74%) and timeliness of communications (79%). Providers were also strongly satisfied with the content (68.4%), frequency (74%), and ease of reading (68%) program notes. Seven providers completed Survey#2, in which providers rated the overall quality of the program as excellent (57%) or good (43%);86% indicated that they would continue to recommend the program to patients, and 86% indicated that the program had a positive effect on patients' well-being. Conclusions: During the COVID pandemic, when sheltering at home was encouraged, provider satisfaction with BQual-D, which provided additional health resources (nurse coaches, care coordinator) to support patients on oral therapy for HR+ MBC, was high. Resources needed to implement BQual-D should be explored as a way of providing additional support for patients and providers in order to minimize the requirement for in-person visits.