Closing Perceived Care Gaps Through Process Development

Abstract

Cancer screening is an important aspect of primary care in terms of caring for patients and in terms of hitting benchmarks for reimbursement. When a primary care clinic transitioned to a new electronic health record and none of the cancer screening data transferred into the new system, they were not meeting organizational goals for cancer screening percentages and recognizing patients who actually had care gaps was nearly impossible. Through process development and collaboration, cancer screenings documentation was increased helping to work towards meeting standards and metrics set forth by the parent organization and helping to uncover actual care gaps.