Implementing a pathway for patients diagnosed with cancer in the emergency department
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Implementing a pathway for patients diagnosed with cancer in the emergency department

Kay McCallum Nurse consultant, acute oncology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, England
Clare Jacobs Consultant in clinical oncology and clinical lead for acute oncology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, England
Philipa Johnstone Senior registrar, radiation therapy, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Melbourne, Australia

Why you should read this article:
  • To understand why being diagnosed with cancer in the emergency department (ED) can be an overwhelmingly negative experience for patients

  • To learn why diagnosis of cancer in the ED could provide a unique opportunity for early intervention

  • To read about how introducing an ED suspected cancer diagnosis pathway can provide patients with named cancer clinical nurse specialist support

Patients diagnosed with cancer or suspected cancer during an emergency department (ED) presentation are often signposted back to their GP for urgent referral to cancer services. However, this can result in delays in patients receiving specialist support, confirmation of diagnosis and, vitally, starting treatment. A quality improvement initiative that aimed to address these issues through the introduction of an ED suspected cancer diagnosis pathway was implemented by the acute oncology service in two EDs in Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in April 2023. Data collected during the first year of implementation of the pathway show there has been a significant increase in the numbers of patients meeting the NHS England 62-day referral to treatment standard and in the numbers of patients receiving support from an acute oncology named cancer clinical nurse specialist from the point of discharge from the ED. This article details the initiative, which is ongoing, and shares some of the results from the first year of data collection.

Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2024.e2217

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

kay.mccallum@ouh.nhs.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

McCallum K, Jacobs C, Johnstone P (2024) Implementing a pathway for patients diagnosed with cancer in the emergency department. Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2024.e2217

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the emergency department staff for their involvement in and contributions to the quality improvement initiative, and the quality improvement team at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The initiative was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre

Published online: 30 October 2024

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