Introduction: Our objective was to improve communication concerning lung cancer patients by developing and distributing a Cancer Care Summary that would provide clinically useful information about the patient’s diagnosis and care to providers in diverse settings. Methods: We designed structured, electronic forms for the electronic health record (EHR), detailing tumor staging, classification, and treatment. To ensure completeness and accuracy of the information, we implemented a data quality cycle, composed of reports that are reviewed by oncology clinicians. The data from the EHR forms are extracted into a structured query language database system on a daily basis, from which the Summaries are derived. We conducted focus groups regarding the utility, format, and content of the Summary. Cancer Care Summaries are automatically generated 4 months after a patient’s date of diagnosis, then every 6 months for those receiving treatment, and on an as-needed basis for urgent care or hospital admission. Results: The product of our improvement project is the Cancer Care Summary. To date, 102 individual patient Summaries have been generated. These documents are automatically entered into the National Jewish Health (NJH) EHR, attached to correspondence to primary care providers, available to patients as electronic documents on the NJH patient portal, and faxed to emergency departments and admitting physicians on patient evaluation. Conclusion: We developed a sustainable tool to improve cancer care communication. The Cancer Care Summary integrates information from the EHR in a timely manner and distributes the information through multiple avenues.
Duly noted: Lessons from a two-site intervention to assess and improve the quality of clinical documentation in the electronic health record