ACHIEVING THE CoC STANDARD FOR
PSYCHOSOCIAL DISTRESS SCREENING
•Melissa Wright, LMSW, OSW-C
Gilda’s Club of the Quad Cities
•Carma Herring, RN, MS, OCN
Executive Director, John Stoddard Cancer Center
Objectives:
 Identify the new Commission on Cancer (CoC) standard
for psychosocial distress screening
 Discuss the value of distress screening in patient-centered
care
 Identify a pivotal visit as it relates to the CoC Standard
CoC Standard:
“The Cancer Committee develops and implements a process
to integrate and monitor on-site psychosocial distress
screening and referral for the provision of psychosocial
care.”
History:
2007 report of the IOM “Cancer Care for the Whole Patient:
Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs.”
NCCN “Distress should be recognized, monitored, and
documented and treated promptly at all stages of the
disease.”
Purpose of the Standard:
To develop a process to incorporate the screening of
distress into the standard care of oncology patients and
provide identified patients with resources.
Pivotal Visit-Determined by each
program
“Time of greatest risk for distress”
Examples:
*Time of diagnosis
*Presurgical/Postsurgical visit
*Initial Chemotherapy administration
*Visit to Radiation Oncologist
Process:
Timing
At inpatient admission
Method
Social Worker meets with patient
Tools
NCCN Distress Screening Tool
Assessment & Referral
Physician signature
Documentation
Scanned into EMR
Implementation:
Trial in July
Measurement began in in August
PATIENTS
DISTRESS
SCREENING
TOOL
OFFERED
DISTRESS
SCREENING
TOOL
COMPLETED
AVERAGE
DISTRESS LEVEL
CONSULTS
REQUESTED
CONCERNS
IDENTIFIED
AUGUST
87
55
52
6.24
39
70
SEPT
121
74
41
5.18
42
34
2012
GOOD THINGS---
• Things to change?