Care Coordination Models Applied to Cancer Survivorship

Abstract

Fragmented and uncoordinated care following active cancer treatment is an important public health problem for many of the 13 million adult cancer survivors not receiving necessary or routine follow-up care. Patients may receive surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy in different departments or health care organizations. The coordination among and between multiple care providers, survivors, and family members is of great importance to cancer survivors to ensure optimal care. While frameworks and models are widely used to guide coordination improvement efforts for chronic diseases, the diversity of these models makes it difficult to choose which model is the best fit for coordinating cancer survivors’ care. This paper analyzes common models used for coordinating chronic and complex disease care to identify key elements in the models that are essential for successfully applying a model to cancer survivors to improve their care coordination.