Results of Engineering, Primary Care, Oncology Collaborative Regarding a Survey of Primary Care on a Re-Engineered Survivorship Care Plan.

Survivorship care plans (SCPs) may facilitate cancer survivorship care shared between oncologists and primary care, particularly for patients more likely to receive care across healthcare systems such as rural patients. However, limited research has addressed primary care clinicians' information or workflow needs with regard to SCPs. This study's objective was to assess primary care clinicians' perceived usefulness with a re-engineered SCP previously developed by applying engineering approaches and informed by primary care preferences. An emailed survey of primary care clinicians assessed perceived usefulness with the re-engineered SCP. Clinicians were recruited across the USA from primary care practice-based research networks (PBRNs) with high concentrations of rural practices. Over 90% of respondents (n = 111) agreed that (1) the re-engineered SCP was useful (n = 95) and (2) they would want to receive a similar SCP (n = 93). The majority demonstrated high agreement regarding the SCP's relevance, understandability, content, and ability to help provide better survivorship care. Perceived usefulness was consistent between rural and non-rural clinicians. Suggested improvements involved decreased length, addition of a bulleted list, and electronic health record integration. Results indicate that the majority of primary care clinicians perceive the re-engineered SCP as useful. However, primary care clinicians indicated continued barriers despite end-user specific alterations. Future research should investigate additional strategies to support primary care survivorship-related workload, provide essential SCP content, and improve survivorship care delivery.

Re-engineering Survivorship Care Plans to Support Primary Care Needs and Workflow: Results From an Engineering, Primary Care and Oncology Collaborative for Survivorship Health (EPOCH).

Maintaining the health of survivors requires communication, collaboration and care coordination between oncology and primary care. Primary care clinicians have been acknowledged as important recipients of survivorship care plans (SCPs); however, current SCP templates have not been evaluated for usefulness in the primary care context. We surveyed and interviewed primary care clinicians from a rural research network regarding SCP content, format and layout (phase 1), and potential use and clinical workflows around SCPs (phase 2). Based on these data, an existing SCP template was iteratively redesigned to better support survivorship care in the primary care setting. A total of 13 clinicians (9 MDs, 4 APPs) participated. Interviewees advocated for maintaining a single SCP document shared by survivors and clinicians. Changes to the SCP template included prioritizing follow-up over summary of treatment and removing or down-playing screening recommendations not impacted by cancer or cancer treatment. The re-engineered SCP was regarded as highly relevant for survivors, but clinicians noted the significant effort to "disassemble" SCPs in order to enter the information into on the receiving health record. Primary care clinicians value the information in SCPs but had important recommendations regarding content, layout, and format. Additionally, a significant effort appears to be required by recipients in order to extract SCP information for future use.