Predictors of Urgent Cancer Care Clinic and Emergency Department Visits for Individuals Diagnosed with Cancer
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Oliver Bucher; Kathleen Decker; Harminder Singh; Pascal Lambert; Mark Kristjanson; Marshall Pitz; Tunji Fatoye; Katie Galloway; Benjamin A Goldenberg; Eric J. Bow
- Source
- Current Oncology
Volume 28
Issue 3
Pages 165-1789
Current Oncology, Vol 28, Iss 165, Pp 1773-1789 (2021)
- Subject
- medicine.medical_specialty
Future studies
Urgent Care Clinics
Ambulatory Care Facilities
Article
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Patient satisfaction
Neoplasms
urgent care clinics
Humans
Medicine
030212 general & internal medicine
Socioeconomic status
RC254-282
Retrospective Studies
emergency service
business.industry
Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens
Cancer
Retrospective cohort study
Emergency department
medicine.disease
Triage
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
oncology
Emergency medicine
Emergency Service, Hospital
business
- Language
- ISSN
- 1718-7729
In 2013, CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB) launched an urgent cancer care clinic (UCC) to meet the needs of individuals diagnosed with cancer experiencing acute complications of cancer or its treatment. This retrospective cohort study compared the characteristics of individuals diagnosed with cancer that visited the UCC to those who visited an emergency department (ED) and determined predictors of use. Multivariable logistic mixed models were run to predict an individual’s likelihood of visiting the UCC or an ED. Scaled Brier scores were calculated to determine how greatly each predictor impacted UCC or ED use. We found that UCC visits increased up to 4 months after eligibility to visit and then decreased. ED visits were highest immediately after eligibility and then decreased. The median number of hours between triage and discharge was 2 h for UCC visits and 9 h for ED visits. Chemotherapy had the strongest association with UCC visits, whereas ED visits prior to diagnosis had the strongest association with ED visits. Variables related to socioeconomic status were less strongly associated with UCC or ED visits. Future studies would be beneficial to planning service delivery and improving clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction.