Impact of a supportive care service for cancer outpatients: management and reduction of hospitalizations. Preliminary results of an integrated model of care.
Supportive care in oncology is a primary need for every oncology department nowadays. In 2012, in our institution, a dedicated supportive care service (SCS) was created in order to deal with any need our on-treatment patients might have (e.g. tumour-related or treatment-related symptoms). We hypothesized that this service had a positive impact on the number of unplanned hospitalizations; to confirm our hypothesis, we decided to review admission data in 2011 and 2012.



Using our internal software, we compared admission data in 2011 (that is, the year before the dedicated service was created) and 2012 (when such service began, that is April of that year). We also made an evaluation of the costs of these hospitalizations.



Despite an increase of the number of patients treated in our day hospital (+6.5 %), the number of unplanned hospital admissions decreased by 3.2 % (from 17.3 to 14.1 %). The number of patients accessing to emergency room went from 66 to 61 % (a reduction of 5 %). The costs of these hospitalizations were reduced by 2.2 %.



The introduction of the dedicated SCS in our oncology department caused a net reduction by 3.2 % of the number of unplanned hospitalizations of on-treatment cancer patients.
Oncologia Medica 1 Ospedaliera, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy. andrea.antonuzzo@tin.it.
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Antonuzzo
Oncologia Medica 2 Universitaria, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Vasile
Oncologia Medica 2 Universitaria, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Sbrana
Oncologia Medica 2 Universitaria, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Lucchesi
Oncologia Medica 2 Universitaria, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Galli
Oncologia Medica 1 Ospedaliera, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Brunetti
Oncologia Medica 2 Universitaria, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Musettini
Oncologia Medica 2 Universitaria, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Farnesi
Oncologia Medica 2 Universitaria, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Biasco
Oncologia Medica 1 Ospedaliera, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Virgili
Oncologia Medica 2 Universitaria, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Falcone
Oncologia Medica 1 Ospedaliera, Polo Oncologico, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy.
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Ricci
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
Emergency room access; Hospitalization costs; Supportive care; Unplanned hospitalizations