Congress Abstracts 2005

77

MAXIMIZING THROUGHPUT FOR ONCOLOGY OUTPATIENTS. Nancy Ziel, RN, BSN, and Patrice Skjerve, RN, MSN, AOCN^®, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL.

Advances in the detection and treatment of cancer in an aging population has resulted in explosive growth in outpatient oncology care, while inpatient bed capacity has remained essentially unchanged. It has therefore become imperative to develop and implement innovative solutions that ensure that the urgent care needs of patients are met appropriately while utilizing existing resources wisely. Most traditional medical surgical hospitals caring for oncology patients have an emergency department that handles urgent patient care needs and serves as a transition point between outpatient and inpatient services. At our specialty institution, a traditional emergency department does not exist since the full range of emergency and trauma services are not needed. However, patients do present to outpatient clinics with urgent needs which may or may not require hospitalization. Therefore, the Patient Triage Area was developed to meet these patient needs.

The purpose of this project was to explore the processes associated with patient care in the Patient Triage Area, and to develop standards and policies to address the unique patient needs in this area.

Process flow diagrams detailing several important aspects of care related to the Patient Triage Area were developed. Through the analysis of these flow diagrams, key policies and processes for improvement were identified. Forms and other documentation were then developed, tested and implemented.

Evaluation of this project is currently in process. Several quality measures will be used to assess the effectiveness of interventions. These quality measures include customer satisfaction (both internal and external), patient wait time reduction, and hospital admission rates within 48 hours for patients discharged to home and not admitted to the hospital.

This abstract presents one way to meet the challenge of addressing patient urgent care needs within one institution. The strategies presented here could be utilized in many institutions to address the unique needs of the oncology patient while maximizing throughput.