The national focus on supportive oncology and palliative medicine is intensifying.
The Coleman Foundation seized the moment to launch the Supportive Oncology Collaborative (SOC), an ambitious initiative that builds upon its 35 years of experience to improve cancer care.
The Institute of Medicine’s 2013 report, “Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis,” set in motion recommendations that include supportive oncology. With few standards available, the Coleman Foundation engaged 135 medical professionals from 25 Chicago area cancer care institutions to create and implement new screening tools for concerns and standards for care for cancer patients and their loved ones.
Through two cycles of funding, the Coleman Foundation enabled 10 sites to implement comprehensive screening tools and new processes. As a result, outcomes were promising; sites hired additional medical staff and began implementing additional supportive care practices to a greater number of cancer patients.
Objective
CANCER PATIENTS
1
Are regularly screened for distress, psychosocial support and palliative care needs
2
Receive all services as identified by screenings (from diagnosis through survivorship and end of life)
3
Obtain services from a collaboration of multiple, high-quality community service providers
The Coleman Foundation Collaborative is a care delivery/process quality improvement initiative.
Roadmap for Improving Supportive Oncology Services
The Supportive Oncology Collaborative participants identified opportunities and gaps in supportive and survivorship care, depicted in the diagram on the left.
To address these gaps, three inter-institution collaborative design teams iteratively developed and piloted screening tools, follow-up processes, provider training, and quality metrics, each providing expertise and content from their respective areas of focus: Distress/Psychosocial, Survivorship, and Palliative Care and Hospice Referral.
Tools, processes, and training are in various stages of implementation at participating quality improvement sites.
PARTICIPATING QUALITY IMPROVEMENT SITES
Mercy Hospital and
Medical Center
Mount Sinai Hospital
John H. Stroger, Jr.
Hospital of Cook County
Rush University
Medical Center
University of
Chicago Medicine
University of Illinois Hospital
& Health Sciences System
Jesse Brown VA
Medical Center
Loyola University
Medical Center
Northwestern Medicine
Methodist Medical
Center of Illinois
Collaborative Outcomes
EVIDENCE-BASED SCREENING TOOLS, FOLLOW-UP CARE PROCESSES
26-MODULE SUPPORTIVE ONCOLOGY CARE EDUCATION SERIES FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS, CME APPROVED
OVER 500 PATIENT RESOURCES HOSTED AT JOURNEY CONNECTIONS
DATA COLLECTION AND QUALITY METRICS