HCA Healthcare has 14 hospitals within a radius of more than 300 miles. The staff know that they have a large catchment area. However, case numbers based on enrollment data are delayed and do not accurately reflect the overall provider organization’s cancer program as a whole.
PROBLEM
“With multiple entry points, we rely on manual searches through pathology,” says Kristina Rua, RN, an oncology nurse, oncology nurse navigator and president of the Florida Cancer Institute. , physician schedules and referrals to identify newly diagnosed cancer cases and patients”. Nurse and Patient Navigator, who was formerly director of oncology navigation services in the East Florida division of HCA Healthcare.
“This is not only a time-consuming task, but it also means that resources are allocated to identifying patients versus actually taking care of them,” she explains. “Nurses are no longer actively involved directly in patient care due to the administrative duties they are assigned to identify newly diagnosed patients.”
Delays in determination have arisen because the process is only started after the results are in the patient’s record or provided to the physician, meaning the care team may be several days late in knowing the diagnosis. reality.
“For patients at high risk of cancer, finding a technology like an AI tool can help them get timely treatment, as AI helps identify positive diagnoses early and increases the chances of saving them. living.”
Kristina Rua, RN, Florida Cancer Institute Nurse and Patient Navigator
“Timeliness of care suffers, as typically a patient’s perception of a newly diagnosed patient is weeks after the procedure,” she said. “We also know patients have been transferred to other facilities. However, we cannot quantify this leak due to lack of data.
She continued: “By notifying navigators about patients as soon as they are diagnosed, they can support patients very early in their cancer treatment journey and in return they will be retained for treatment. treat. “Ultimately, referral patterns were not easy to track, which ultimately impacted the growth and development of our service line.”
SUGGESTIONS
HCA Healthcare has chosen Azra’s AI technology to help. The provider has provided a variety of technologies to help solve complex problems, starting with the early identification of cancer patients through the use of artificial intelligence to identify cancer-positive patients from pathological reports. The provider also provides the ability to display incidental findings from radiographic image text.
“They also provide the option to abstract the aforementioned data, facilitating the role of cancer registries,” explains Rua. “They’ve provided additional efficiency to the registry by filling out more than 50 additional required fields for them and integrating with the registry software or putting the information in a required format for upload.
“For our nurse navigation team, there is the option of a documentation system that can track patients from diagnosis through cancer staging continuum with the ability to run reports that will aid management in development navigation and provide specific data that helps with programmatic growth,” she added.
Azra AI provides the ability to centralize HCA department data into a single underlying platform from which employees can pull data to set service flow and growth goals with volume and time data. real.
MEET CHALLENGES ONLY
The program was rolled out across the department and focused on identifying pathology reports that suggested a probable cancer diagnosis. These reports are then broken down by facility and tumor location and assigned to the nurse responsible for navigating that condition.
Rua notes: “The beauty of this process is that the pathology now appears directly in the navigator’s queue. “And this technology has been incorporated into our Meditech EHR.
“In addition, with the new concurrency abstraction requirements for cancer registrations, it allows HCA Healthcare to centralize its entire enrollment process, with fewer staff, due to subscriber shortages. nationally certified tumor register,” she continued. “We can start a case file as soon as a patient is diagnosed and pre-populate some data fields for them in which they are manually reviewing previous reports.”
Azra AI created a file in the required format (NAACCR) for the cancer registry to place cancer case data in Metriq.
RESULT
“We were able to reduce the time from diagnosis to first treatment to six days,” reports Rua. “By notifying navigators about patients as soon as they are diagnosed, they can intervene immediately and retain the patient for treatment, while ensuring timely treatment is achieved.
“Patient retention has increased by more than 50%. We are part of a very competitive market,” she continued. “Employee efficiency has been achieved and it has been shown to spend 35% more time with patients after implementing this technology, increasing navigator workload by 71%.”
TIPS FOR OTHER PEOPLE
Rua says AI is making cancer care so much more efficient.
“Given the pace at which AI and cancer evolve, we will start to see it used more in precision medicine in the future, so we need to be prepared, prioritize, and feel comfortable with the direction.” go now,” she advised. “I would speak to other health care providers to improve their understanding of how genetics affect cancer outcomes. It is an effective prevention tool and is often practiced by patients. genetic testing to identify potential cancer diagnoses.
“For patients at high risk of cancer, finding a technology like an AI tool can help them get treatment in time, as AI helps identify positive diagnoses early,” she concludes. and increase your chances of saving lives.”
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Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
