Debra Patt, MD, PhD, MBA, executive vice president of Texas Oncology, discusses how community oncology practices have heightened their outreach efforts to entice patients back in for cancer screenings and the importance of thinking outside the box to overcome staffing shortages in the oncology space.
Debra Patt, MD, PhD, MBA, executive vice president of Texas Oncology, discusses how in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, community oncology practices have heightened their outreach efforts to entice patients back in for cancer screenings and the importance of thinking outside the box to overcome staffing shortages in the oncology space.
Transcript
Has outreach been effective in getting patients to come back for their mammograms or their colorectal cancer screenings?
Many US Oncology practices have been involved in marketing campaigns to try to heighten awareness of the need for screens. We want people to present with curative cancers. Also, the Community Oncology Alliance has worked with CancerCare to create the Time to Screen campaign. Patti LaBelle was the champion of that campaign. They have a number to call so people can get access to cancer screening, 1-855-53SCREEN [1-855-537-2733]. That was really implemented, and we had a national campaign, to try to heighten awareness that screening was important, that people shouldn’t delay, and to identify resources where people could go to obtain cancer screening in the event that they didn’t know about them.
What can be done to help the health care infrastructure get everybody caught up?
I think it’s a challenge. Understaffing is an issue across health care across the United States, and I think it’s not going away anytime soon. You know, the nursing shortage we were aware of before the pandemic even began, and it was certainly exacerbated by the pandemic—and I imagine will be here for many years to come.
I think we all need to think about how to support our teams and work differently. In my practice, in Texas Oncology and across the US Oncology network, some of that has been thinking about staffing creatively, looking at virtual care positions, looking at alternative staffing models, alternate hours of work, job sharing. So, we need to make sure that we have jobs that are attractive for employees, as it’s a national problem, and I don’t expect it will go away anytime soon.
Dr Dalia Rotstein: Physicians Must Be Aware MS Affects People of All Backgrounds
April 24th 2024Dalia Rotstein, MD, MPH, emphazises the importance of awareness that multiple sclerosis (MS) impacts patients from various backgrounds as clinicians think through ways to improve access to care and research efforts in MS.
Read More
Empowering Community Health Through Wellness and Faith
April 23rd 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are bringing you a special month-long podcast series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. In the third episode, Camille Clarke-Smith, EdD, MS, CHES, CPT, discusses approaching community health holistically through spiritual and community engagement.
Listen
Overcoming Employment Barriers for Lasting Social Impact: Freedom House 2.0 and Pathways to Work
April 16th 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are bringing you a special month-long podcast series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. Welcome to our second episode, in which we learn all about Freedom House 2.0 and the Pathways to Work program.
Listen
What We’re Reading: Abortion Privacy Rules; Alzheimer Drug Hurdles; Nursing Home Staffing Overhaul
April 23rd 2024New health privacy rules aim to protect patients and providers in an evolving abortion landscape; some physicians express concerns about efficacy, risks, and entrenched beliefs in treating Alzheimer disease; CMS addresses longstanding staffing deficits in nursing homes.
Read More
Award-Winning Poster Presentations From AMCP 2024
April 23rd 2024At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2024 annual meeting, multiple poster presentations concerned with health equity, data collection, glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, and more were acknowledged for their originality, relevance, clarity, bias, and quality.
Read More