Abstract

Patients with cancer are ideally screened for symptoms, including distress, using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). This initiative was developed to ensure patients without access to an electronic portal were screened for distress and related symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, these patients could complete screening in clinic. However, many visits transitioned to telehealth. We implemented a standardized telephone outreach process targeting patients without active electronic portal accounts to improve remote symptom monitoring. Outreach resulted in 172 completed screens, identifying 110 needs for 63 individuals. Twenty-eight patients completed patient portal enrollment. Outreach calls captured a higher percentage of Black patients (34%) and a higher percentage of 61-80 year olds (69%) compared to portal users. Telephone outreach during the pandemic captured data that otherwise would have been missed in elderly and minority patients without electronic patient portal access. Patient engagement is vital to the distress screening process.

摘要

使用患者报告的结果测量 (PROM) 对癌症患者进行理想的症状筛查，包括痛苦。制定此计划是为了确保在 COVID-19 大流行期间对无法访问电子门户的患者进行痛苦和相关症状的筛查。在大流行之前，这些患者可以在诊所完成筛查。然而，许多访问转变为远程医疗。我们针对没有活跃电子门户帐户的患者实施了标准化的电话外展流程，以改进远程症状监测。外展活动完成了 172 次筛查，确定了 63 人的 110 项需求。28 名患者完成了患者门户注册。与门户用户相比，外展电话吸引了更高比例的黑人患者 (34%) 和更高比例的 61-80 岁人群 (69%)。大流行期间的电话外展捕获了数据，否则在没有电子患者门户访问权限的情况下，老年人和少数族裔患者可能会错过这些数据。患者参与对于遇险筛查过程至关重要。