Author of

• 12853

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  P3.24 - Poster Session 3 - Supportive Care (ID 160)

  • Event: WCLC 2013
  • Type: Poster Session
  • Track: Supportive Care
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:
  • Coordinates: 10/30/2013, 09:30 - 16:30, Exhibit Hall, Ground Level

  • 12866

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    P3.24-013 - Improving access to treatment for lung cancer patients (AccessTLC): Results of a pilot using patient interviews to determine time to treatment. (ID 900)

    09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): R. Vidaver
    • Abstract

    Background
    Some lung cancer patients experience unnecessary delays in their care in the US; these delays are not currently well-documented outside the Veterans Administration Hospital system. We evaluated the accuracy of patient interviews as a method of documenting timeliness of care. Our results will be used to implement a larger study that will inform the development of targeted interventions to reduce time to treatment for lung cancer patients.

    Methods
    Oncologists referred 36 patients with lung cancer. The initial 20 patients were interviewed to collect 11 dates pertinent to their cancer care (Figure 1). The next 16 patients completed the interview and their charts were reviewed in order to analyze the correspondence of patient-reported data with chart-reported data. We conducted quantitative and qualitative analysis of the interview data to document time intervals and examine delays. Figure 1

    Results
    Results: For the 16 patients whose charts were reviewed: patient-reported and chart-reported median time from the first visit to the first treatment was the same (41.5 days) median time difference between patient-reported and chart-reported dates varied from 0 to 8 days Lin’s correlation coefficient indicated almost perfect agreement (ρ >0.99) for five dates; and poor agreement (ρ <0.90) for six dates 2.25% of total dates were lacking from charts For the entire cohort (36 patients), based on the interview data: time to treatment varied (Table 1) 22 of 36 (61%) patients experienced one or more delays that could possibly be avoided 5.28% of total dates were not recalled by patients Figure 1

    Conclusion
    Interviewing patients has limitations but is an appropriate method of collecting dates regarding lung cancer care. There are multiple opportunities to reduce time to treatment for patients with lung cancer. More research is needed to understand delays in lung cancer care.