Cancer Physician Liasion

Cancer Physician Liaison

JOHN K. HILL, MD

The Cancer Liaison Physician (CLP) is responsible for reviewing Pardee’s RQRS and CP3R data on a regular basis and reporting the data to the cancer committee. The data is monitored and interpreted using the National Cancer Data Base reporting tools and there is also the capability to compare our hospital to state, national and cancer programs in the same accreditation category. Pardee UNC Health Care is in the Comprehensive Cancer Program category.

Once the data is reviewed, we can review each case that does not meet the criteria. It can be updated if needed, or we can document why the criteria was not met. Each patient’s treatment plan is different and the treatment modalities are not always done in the same order for patients. This can sometimes make the measure read lower than it actually is. Once that patient’s abstract is updated with the complete treatment information, the case is resubmitted and our percentages will be updated as well.

Taking care of cancer patients is ever changing, and data entered into the cancer registry is very fluid. This requires very close monitoring and frequent updating. No two patients are the same, and no two abstracts are the same. Patients may receive part of their treatment at Pardee Cancer Center and part at another facility, so we must work closely with the other facility to make sure we have all of the treatment information.

As the CLP for Pardee, I communicate on a regular basis with our cancer registrar regarding our data submission frequency and completeness and regarding any measures that we do not meet. This is shared with our cancer committee on a quarterly basis and we discuss what measures, if any, need to be taken to improve our data. 