Kathy Oubre Discusses How Tailored Education Programs Assist in Optimizing Cancer Care for Patients

Developing an expansive program to meet the needs of all of our patients, at all education levels, is 1 of the biggest challenges we face at Pontchartrain Cancer Center, said Kathy W. Oubre, MS, chief operating officer at Pontchartrain Cancer Center. Kathy Oubre is additionally scheduled to speak at the Community Oncology Alliance Virtual Meeting, which runs from April 23-24, 2020 and can be registered for here.

Transcript

Pontchartrain Cancer Center is located in southeastern Louisiana; what challenges do you face when providing care to patients in this area?

The challenges we face are very practice specific. We have 2 practices in southeast Louisiana, 1 is actually in the most wealthiest parish in the state. Our other practice, which is only 30 minutes apart, sits in the fifth poorest parish in the state. So tailoring our programs and our communication to fit the needs of all of those patients is actually 1 of our biggest challenges, as well as being able to get the patients the therapy they need in an affordable manner.

So, for example, years ago we developed a patient education program prior to the initiation of any therapy. They would come in for a treatment education visit where we would go over their medications, side effects, anything else they might need, and in analyzing that uptake, about a year after we started the program, we noticed in our more rural parish that the education wasn’t going over as well. We were still getting a lot of phone calls to the practice for things that were included in that education visit.

So, after doing some research and speaking to several of our patients in both practices, it dawned on us that we developed this whole program around an education level that was not optimal for that more rural parish. So, then it caused us to go back and we kept that original program, but then we developed a second program that was best tailored for the needs of those patients, and it's been therefore that we have cut down on calls to the practice and it's been a better patient experience.