In May 2016, Outer Banks Health was recognized for its commitment to providing comprehensive, high quality, patient-centered cancer care by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC).
Given that our top cancer site is breast cancer, Outer Banks Health Cancer Committee identified and acted on the opportunity to improve timeliness to breast cancer diagnosis. The goal was set to decrease the time from an abnormal mammogram finding to the completion of the breast biopsy.
Our success in achieving timeliness, was the result of:
- Hiring a patient navigator dedicated to patient’s with breast cancer.
- Establishing a breast clinic to assure timely access to expert breast care and follow-up.
- Providing mobile mammography service.
- Streamlining our process to notify radiologists when a patient’s mammogram is complete and ready for review.
- Improving the process for patients to schedule breast biopsies. Our breast cancer navigator follows up on the biopsy results to make sure the ordering physician receives the results and schedules for timely follow-up care.
- Providing community education to increase breast cancer awareness and services provided at our hospital.
