The VACHS staff reviewed the experiences of 2 VA sites using a draft CPRS survivorship care plan template. They also spent a day observing an established survivorship clinic at the VACHS academic affiliate Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) in November of 2012. At that time, the YNHH clinic format was a 2-visit model for patients who had completed treatment. During their first visit to the YNHH clinic, patients meet with 4 members of an interdisciplinary team: a medical provider, a dietician, a physical therapist, and a social worker. At the end of the visit, the patient receives a SCP, a comprehensive document based on a template from the Livestrong organization. 4 The second visit is scheduled 3 months later to follow up with patients and address any ongoing concerns. Patients then would be discharged from the survivorship clinic.
Given the complicated needs of the VA patient population, VACHS staff wanted to create a survivorship clinic that would provide regular, close followup by a multidisciplinary team within the existing hematology/oncology outpatient clinic. This design was believed to better serve veteran cancer survivors than a stand-alone clinic.
Clinic Creation
The VACHS chief of oncology, the cancer registrar, and the cancer care coordinator met in October 2012 to review Standard 3.3 and determine the best approach for VACHS patients. A plan to phase survivorship care into the existing hematology/oncology clinic was established. The group identified appropriate cancer survivor patients who would be followed by an APRN and a medical doctor. After reviewing the most common cancers treated at VACHS, it was decided to start the survivorship clinic with patients who had been treated for stage I lung cancer, stage I or II colorectal cancer, and/or stage I melanoma. These patients are not usually treated with chemotherapy, are less likely to relapse given early stage, and generally would be expected to be less complicated medically than would patients with more advanced disease. Patients previously treated for more advanced cancers would continue to be followed by medical doctors unless determined to be appropriate for migration to this new clinic.
The VACHS staff chose to embed this new clinic within existing APRN hematology/oncology clinics. Survivorship clinic visits were not restricted to a particular date or time in order to maximize efficiency as the workload associated with this clinic was not initially known. To track patient volume in the clinic, VACHS staff created the following note titles for patients being followed in the survivorship clinic: (1) Hem/Onc APRN Survivorship Clinic Initial Consult; (2) Hem/Onc APRN Cancer Survivorship Note; and (3) Cancer Survivor Treatment Summary. Unique note titles can be searched in VistA to create real-time reporting, thereby enabling staff to monitor the size, demographics, and workload associated with this clinic.
Vision for Care
The goals of survivorship care at VACHS were (1) to prevent, detect early, and treat complications from cancer treatment through regular clinic visits and ongoing education and support; (2) to provide holistic, individualized medical care and psychosocial support for veterans who are cancer survivors; (3) to maximize health, quality of life, and longevity; and (4) to facilitate appropriate referrals.
