Oncolog Visit De-Scarce: A Case Study

Introduction Oncology services in the United States are rising dramatically. In 2014, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 20.3 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer. A study performed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) reported that the number of individuals diagnosed with cancer will increase 55% by 2020, and that oncology visits will increase from 38 million in 2005 to 57 million in 2020 (Warren, Mariotto, Meekins, Topor, & Brown, 2008). As a result, outpatient oncology clinics are experiencing high patient volumes as the prevalence of cancer continues to rise. It must be noted however, that cancer services are not only related to the number of cancer patients seen, but rather impacted significantly by the increasing complexity of cancer care the patients are receiving as well. Due to increasing demand, oncology clinics are experiencing increased workloads resulting in delays in laboratory results, oncology appointments, and chemotherapy administration; thus, affecting wait times, patient satisfaction, and clinical efficiency. The focus of this paper will be on visit de-coupling in an outpatient …show more content…
Aimed to streamline oncology outpatient clinics by targeting strategies to standardize scheduling processes, it simplifies steps and redesigns the clinical efficiencies and effectiveness needed to improve and optimize clinic wait times (Brandenburg, Gabow, Steele, Toussaint, & Tyson, 2015). It is an organized, lean thinking process that ties a business methodology to oncology outpatient clinics to deliver optimal cancer care to patients and to improve operational efficiencies. This process separates oncology visits and chemotherapy treatment visits into different days with the goal of improving the quality of care delivered by reducing patient wait times, total length of day of operation, and overall efficiency (Bach,