Case Study
Texas Oncology
The Challenge
Texas Oncology was looking for a Patient Care Management Solution that could help with remote patient management and triage patients based on symptom severity. A scalable solution that could field call-back times, particularly for symptom-related calls was needed to reduce emergency department (ED) visits.
The Solution
Texas Oncology leveraged Navigating Cancer’s Triage Care Management tool, which allowed the ability to document all inbound patient calls and incidents, which were then made visible to the entire care team. Patients could easily input answers to questions regarding their symptoms and medication compliance. Symptom-related calls with high risk-symptoms, such as fevers of 102 degrees, were flagged as needing to be prioritized with nurse intervention.
The Results
Texas Oncology implemented Navigating Cancer’s Triage Care Management tool in February 2020, which tracked 1 million calls through the end of Q4 2020. Texas Oncology was successfully able to return all calls and resolve them within a 2-hour time frame. Call back times for symptom-related calls improved to under 90 minutes, at 1.4 hours, and 60% of symptom-related calls were managed within the hour. As a result, the majority of symptom-related incidents were taken care of in less than an hour with an 8% ED hospital avoidance.
The data shows that digital healthcare systems like Health Tracker can help clinicians manage their patients’ symptoms quickly and efficiently, potentially leading to improved clinical outcomes, fewer visits to emergency departments, higher patient satisfaction, and compliance with therapy.
Services
With a powerful risk-stratified system, Navigating Cancer’s Patient Care Management solution ensures patients receive a high level of care coordination and management. Automated task assignments help care teams reduce manual coordination and keep the focus on patient-centered care.
Provider
Locations
EMR
Top Metrics
- Return times for symptom-related calls improved to under 90 minutes, at 1.4 hours.
- 60% of symptom-related calls were resolved in less than one hour.
- 8% Hospital ED Avoidance.
Customer website
Challenge
Texas Oncology needed a Triage Patient Care Management solution that was scalable, easy-to-administer, and allowed for transparency across clinical care teams. However, they also needed a solution that could manage patient symptoms in a timely manner that would also lower overall Emergency Department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. Another critical challenge was providing consistent symptom pathways that could be used across clinics and their various systems used for patient triage, symptom documentation and management, and adverse events.
The product team at Navigating Cancer, led by Laura Ford, realized that Texas Oncology needed a better system of managing patient phone calls so that care teams could get patients the care they needed in an ambulatory rather than an inpatient setting. They understood that a scalable and streamlined care coordination solution was essential so that nurses and ancillary clinical staff were able to reach patients in an appropriate and timely fashion.
Texas Oncology’s patient care management goals were:
- Reduce patient call-back times in 90 minutes.
- Improve nurse intervention for symptom-related incidents that would likely have otherwise resulted in ED visits.
- Meaningful reduction in hospitalization and emergency department (ED) visits by shifting care to ambulatory settings.
- Improve response time with communication between nurses and health care professionals and patients.
Solution
Patient Care Management (Triage), powered by Navigating Cancer, allows for automated task assignments for clinical care teams to reduce manual coordination and keep the focus on patients.
This comprehensive solution uses a risk-stratified system to ensure all patients receive a high level of care and that symptom-related calls and incidents are re-routed to appropriate team members.
Through the use of Navigating Cancer’s triage care management tool, call-back times, particularly for symptom-related calls, was markedly reduced. This streamlined care coordination led to a reduction in hospitalization and emergency department (ED) visits by allowing nurses and health care professionals to communicate with patients in a timelier manner.
The study, which started in the fourth quarter of 2019 and continued until December 2020, showed that the electronic dashboard had a positive impact in reducing call-back times. Pre-implementation call-back times started at 3.2 hours for all incidents and 2.3 hours for symptom-related incidents. By December 2020, resolution times had improved to 2.2 hours for all incidents and 1.5 hours for symptom-related incidents.
Besides improved patient call-back times, Texas Oncology also benefited from Navigating Cancer’s automated task assignments which helped streamline care coordination so that nurses were able to reach patients in an appropriate and timely fashion. After a nurse had called a patient back, they then resolved the call with documentation. Furthermore, the symptom management pathways established consistency across clinics and their systems of triaging, managing, and documenting symptoms and adverse events.
- Patient calls and all incidents get routed through Navigating Cancer’s comprehensive solution to the appropriate team member for triage.
- Leverage our Symptom Management Pathways to manage acute patient issues and reduce variability. This would allow Texas Oncology a better way to triage patients, manage and document symptoms and side effects.
- Insights from collected data help optimize practice flow and patient triage for appropriate resource utilization.
- Use automated task assignments to reduce manual coordination and keep the focus on patients.
Results
Since implementing NavigatingCancer’s patient management solutions, Texas Oncology saw reduced call-back times for symptom-related calls as well as reduced hospitalizations.
Navigating Cancer’s Triage Care Management Tool also allowed for documentation of all inbound patient calls and incidents, which were visible to Texas Oncology’s entire care team. As a result, patients could easily input answers to questions regarding their symptoms and medication compliance. In addition, patient calls with high risk-symptoms, such as fevers of 102 degrees, were flagged as needing to be prioritized.
Since switching to NavigatingCancer, Texas Oncology saw:
Q4 2019 (Pre-Implementation)
- Pre-implementation call-back times started at 3.2 hours for all incidents and 2.3 hours for symptom-related incidents.
Q4 2019 vs. Q4 2020 (Post-Implementation)
- Resolution times had improved with the average response time for each incident falling from 3.2 hours to 2.2 hours by December 2020 for symptom-related incidents.
- Return times for symptom-related calls improved to under 90 minutes, at 1.4 hours
- 60% of symptom-related calls were managed within the hour.
- 8% of symptom-related incidents that would likely have otherwise resulted in an ED visit were averted by nurse intervention.
- Texas Oncology discovered shortness of breath, vomiting, chills, and weakness were the top symptom types addressed for emergency department avoidances.