Jennifer Elston Lafata, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues conducted the study and published their findings in Supportive Care in Cancer.<\/p>\n
Dr. Lafata and colleagues explained that estimates show that 20% to 51% of ED visits are preventable, yet patients receiving cancer treatment frequently require ED visits and unplanned hospitalizations, which is \u201cburdensome for patients and caregivers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study was performed within a quality improvement initiative that sought to decrease sociodemographic disparities that drive ED visits. Investigators conducted interviews to collect information and perspectives from adult patients receiving systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) \u201cat a large academic medical center.\u201d<\/p>\n
Individuals who were eligible to participate were 21 years of age or older, had experienced an ED visit within 30 days of receiving SACT, and were American Indian, Black, and\/or insured by Medicaid.<\/p>\n
The semi-structured interviews performed by investigators covered \u201csymptom experiences, care-seeking decisions, and perceived barriers to outpatient support.\u201d The study authors evaluated transcripts from the interviews by using \u201citerative thematic analysis\u201d to identify the underlying reasons for ED visits, as well as pathways that led to those visits.<\/p>\n
Ten of 11 patients who were identified as eligible participated in the study. All participants were Black and\/or insured by Medicaid. The results revealed two pathways that led to patients seeking care in the ED after cancer treatment: \u201cself-referral and referral by a health care professional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators reported that drivers of ED visits uncovered by the interviews included \u201csymptom onset or escalation accompanied by worry and uncertainty, barriers to accessing trusted clinical advice between visits, and limited effective self-management strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Study findings also included factors that shaped care-seeking decisions among patients, such as the normalization of treatment-related symptoms, advice and guidance from family members and caregivers, and \u201cimprovised self-management strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPatient interviews revealed multiple, interrelated drivers of ED use during cancer treatment that extend beyond symptom severity alone,\u201d investigators concluded. \u201cFindings identified multiple targets for improved supportive care processes and strategies to reduce preventable ED visits during cancer treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennifer Elston Lafata, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[163,85,46],"class_list":["post-619463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}