Standardized content enables deeper management of acute patient incidents
Seattle, January 5, 2017 — Navigating Cancer, the pioneer in patient-engagement technology for cancer care, today unveiled Symptom Management Pathways (SMPs) as part the company’s larger Care Management offering.
The new content module was developed in partnership with the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (CCBD), a world-class cancer treatment center, to build consistency in the way cancer clinics triage, manage and document patient symptoms and side effects.
These pathways are, in essence, an electronic manual that guides triage staff to more deeply assess and respond to patient needs. Staff simply choose the applicable pathway(s) and review a list of pre-generated questions with the patient. Embedded branching logic prompts new questions based on the patient response, narrowing the margin of diagnostic error. This in turn enables staff to use their best clinical judgement when determining the most appropriate intervention.
The value of standardized symptom management is two-fold: improved quality of care and reduced variability in the way that care is delivered. All staff can apply the same systematic approach to care, regardless of practice location or provider affiliation. Standardization lowers the learning curve for new staff and ensures that patients’ perception of care is seamless. It ensures consistent documentation, so any care team member, including the physician, can easily follow what’s been done for the patient. This smarter, comprehensive approach ensures all possible risk factors are thoroughly addressed.
When paired with the company’s existing Triage module, the output is a dynamic patient record that includes who cared for the patient, the details of the encounter and what resolution was reached.
CCBD has been using SMPs with Triage for over a year with very positive results.
“Our triage nurses use the symptom management pathways to uniformly manage our patients resulting in better outcomes,” said Ray Page, DO PhD FACOI, President & Director of Research. “By empowering our nurses to do more, patient concerns are addressed on the spot and the number of after-hour follow-up calls for our physicians have been significantly reduced.”
Navigating Cancer has identified a few dozen pathways for development with CCBD, many of which are already in use at several partner clinics. As a technology-based solution, the pathways can be easily configured and updated based on evolving clinical best practices. Practice administrators can also draw insights from the collected data, through a series of productivity and patient issue management reports, to optimize practice workflow and improve patient care.
For more information about Symptom Management Pathways or to request a personalized consultation for your cancer program, visit www.navigatingcancer.com.