SupportScreen: A Model for Improving Patient Outcomes

As demands on physician time mount, and patients and families increasingly expect accommodation and understanding of their specific, personal situations, care providers must boost efficiency and minimize the expense of their clinic processes and draw on connections with community resources. Third-party payors may also expect that the biopsychosocial needs of patients and families be addressed as an essential part of cancer care. Quality of care, cost, patient satisfaction, adherence to treatment, safety, and allocation of limited resources are all related to the identification and effective management of the psychosocial elements of cancer care. Experts suggest that health care has lagged far behind other industries in using technology to improve efficiency, and slow adoption of this technology means that critical information about the biopsychosocial needs of patients fails to reach the right professionals in a timely way. Systematic and automated screening can promote physician control in managing time, the efficiency of the clinical encounter, and rapid triage to other professionals and community resources. (JNCCN 2010;8:496-504)