Navigating the Transition From Cancer Care to Primary Care: Assistance of a Survivorship Care Plan.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To examine symptom and quality-of-life (QOL) trajectories in breast cancer and lymphoma survivors enrolled in a survivorship navigation intervention and to explore patient, caregiver, and primary care provider (PCP) satisfaction with receipt of a survivorship care plan (SCP). 
. DESIGN: Prospective, cohort, longitudinal.
. SETTING: The Billings Clinic, an integrated cancer center in Montana. 
. SAMPLE: 67 patients with breast cancer or lymphoma who recently completed cancer treatment, along with 39 of their caregivers and 23 PCPs. 
. METHODS: Data collection at one, three, and six months by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General and satisfaction surveys.
. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Symptoms, QOL, and satisfaction with the survivorship navigator and the SCP.
. FINDINGS: Symptoms persisted six months following treatment. Symptoms and QOL indicators with worst intensity were energy, sleep, coping, and satisfaction with sex life. Patients with more comorbidities reported worse QOL, telephoned the survivorship navigator more often, and were more satisfied with the SCP. Patients with lymphoma reported higher QOL, but it was not significantly different from patients with breast cancer. Patients were significantly more satisfied than caregivers with the SCP at time 1. PCPs were highly satisfied with the SCP.
. CONCLUSIONS: Some symptoms persist, even when cancer treatment has ended. Patients with comorbidities are at higher risk for more severe symptoms and worse QOL and may benefit from ongoing support. SCPs can facilitate patients' transition to primary care following cancer treatment. 
. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Healthcare professionals who care for breast cancer survivors need to routinely assess them for the presence of comorbid conditions. Obese breast cancer survivors may benefit from weight reduction interventions to possibly decrease their risk of developing lymphedema and improve their overall health status.

Implementation of a dietitian-led enteral nutrition support clinic results in quality improvement, reduced readmissions, and cost savings.

BACKGROUND: Enteral access device malfunction and breakage results in significant morbidity and healthcare cost. In many healthcare systems, enteral nutrition care is fragmented and inefficient. We describe the development and validation of an enteral nutrition support clinic (NSC) with a focus on prevention of enteral access complications. A care protocol consisting of pre- and postplacement visits and subsequent weekly visits was developed. Competencies were established for dietitians to staff the NSC. METHODS: A retrospective quality analysis was performed in patients before and after the implementation of an enteral NSC. Enteral access complications, emergency room visits, readmissions, unplanned physician visits, and tube replacements were recorded for 90 days after tube placement. RESULTS: Thirty patients were evaluated in the NSC pilot and compared with 22 baseline patients with adequate follow-up. The NSC resulted in an 88.9% reduction in nutrition-related emergency room visits (P = .016) and 78.1% reduction in readmissions (P = .027). Estimated per-patient cost reductions amounted to $6831. Approximately 30% of patients were seen in the NSC at least once for a clogged tube and 43.3% for tube leakage. Only 1 NSC patient required a procedure for tube reinsertion. CONCLUSION: Implementation of a dietitian-led nutrition support clinic resulted in improved quality, as well as reductions in hospital readmissions, tube-related complications, and healthcare costs

The cancer psychosocial care matrix: a community-derived evaluative tool for designing quality psychosocial cancer care delivery.

OBJECTIVE: Although the Institute of Medicine provided a vision for effective psychosocial care for cancer survivors, limited guidance exists regarding the essential components of comprehensive care or progressive steps for implementing each component. This paper describes the development of a unique tool for assessing capacity to provide quality psychosocial care to cancer survivors and the results of the first implementation of this tool in community settings. METHODS: The psychosocial working group of the National Cancer Institute Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) developed the Cancer Psychosocial Care Matrix assessment tool. All NCCCP sites (n=30, enrolled in 2007 nd 2010) completed the matrix indicating their capacity for providing psychosocial care at entry into NCCCP ('baseline') after 2 years of NCCCP participation (2007 sites only) and within the coming year ('future aspirations'). RESULTS: At baseline, matrix responses reflected few or no systematic processes in place for most components of comprehensive psychosocial care. However, reported capacity to deliver specific components improved at 2 years post-NCCCP entry for the 2007 sites and in all NCCCP sites' future aspirations. CONCLUSIONS: With growing demand on cancer centers to meet new metrics of quality care, the psychosocial matrix can help centers systematically identify and develop steps to address gap areas in their capacity to meet these new standards. The Cancer Psychosocial Care Matrix appears to enable evaluation of psychosocial programs, may promote intentions to improve psychosocial services, and can facilitate communication of 'best practices' among cancer centers.