Abstract 4123
Background
“The South Thailand Insurgency” is burning violence in the deep south of Thailand. The insurgency which has been ongoing since 2004 has played out in the three southern most districts of the country Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and some area of Songkhla, so-called the “Red Zone”. Violence such as daily ambush, bombing on soldiers and civilians, caused people living in terror. This violence has affected cancer service. Many cancer patients gave up on their lives due to struggle with the disease itself, security concerns, traveling and caregiving burden led to a high loss to follow-up rate. We, an oncology service team working at Songklanagarind hospital, the only one radiation and oncology center located in this area, in cooperation with doctors and nurses working in the Red Zone created a network and utilized an electronic consultation and referral system to alleviate these suffering. We preliminarily reported its real-life performance in 3 years period.
Methods
Electronic consultation system(E-consult) was a web-based program designed and developed to provide advice and facilitate the referral process in cancer care. Since October 2015, we prospectively surveyed the impact of this pilot project on the quality of service by counting waiting time, the number of center visit until treatment, unnecessary referral avoidance, patient and potential cost saving compared to the normal referral system.
Results
E-consult reached out to 7 hospitals and 589 patient referred through E-consult. Among patients from the Red Zone, without E-consult, their average waiting time was 56.4 days, the number of visits was 6.5 visits. The estimated financial burden was $758.8 per patient. After the implementation of E-consult in 259 patients, the average time to treatment was 41.5 days (p = 0.006) and the number of counter visit was 2.3 visits (p < 0.001). The estimated financial burden was $358.7(p < 0.001). We prevented 28 patients from the unnecessary referral.
Conclusions
In this special context, the electronic referral system not only was helpful to improve medical access, timeliness to specialist care, saving the patients’ family time and resources but it also supports the doctors and nurses on duty in the Red Zone.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Nanthiya Rattanakhot.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Resources from the same session
5066 - Screening for Psicosocial Distress in recently diagnosed cancer patients
Presenter: Eva Baillès
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
6074 - Socio-demographic characteristics and quality of life analysis of cancer survivors followed at a Primary Care Center.
Presenter: Begona Grana Suarez
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
5129 - The adhesion in the screening measures in carrying patients of breast cancer and ovary hereditary and the relationship with the psychological aspects
Presenter: Melinda Concepcion
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
5635 - Assessment of emotional discomfort of oncological patients in the first nursing visit at Donostia University Hospital
Presenter: Elena Uranga
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
858 - A systematic review and meta-analysis of the distress thermometer for the screening of distress in Chinese patients with cancer
Presenter: Hui Hui Sun
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
4475 - Pharmacist and Nurse (PN) Led Melanoma Immunotherapy Clinic: Patient Experience Survey
Presenter: Dharmisha Chauhan
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
1871 - Phone Triage & Acute Review Clinics: The emerging role of the Oncology Specialist Nurse
Presenter: Fiona Barrett
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
5193 - Patient reported outcomes during immunotherapy: symptom burden in daily clinical practice
Presenter: José Koldenhof
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
2453 - Factors related to hospital length of stay, re-admissions and unplanned care for patients with cancer, an on-going study
Presenter: Helena Ullgren
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract
3361 - Providing a nurse-led telephone intervention for patients treated with oral anticancer medication: symptom management and adherence monitoring
Presenter: Etienne Minvielle
Session: Poster Display session 3
Resources:
Abstract