Fighting Colorectal Cancer – A salute to our relentless champions of hope.
By Catherine Rice, Vice President of Marketing/Outreach
At Health Partnership Clinic (HPC), a small but mighty team of clinical and non-clinical professionals are working to end barriers to colorectal cancer screenings. And we’re making a difference—one patient at a time. A year ago, we screened 36 percent of eligible patients. Today, we’ve improved that measure to 50 percent! Colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly occurring cancers and is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. It is the third most common cancer in men and women.
Our Chief Health Officer Wael S. Mourad, MD, MHCM, FAAFP, and Quality Improvement (QI) Committee Chair says the goal is to combat colorectal cancer with vigorous screening efforts because it saves lives. Dr. Mourad has been really pleased with the progress, which has been the best performance on record at the clinic!
Our Dedicated Team
He notes that the work we are doing is so very important, and it couldn’t happen without a team dedicated to providing hope, health and quality patient care. The team includes Jenny Miller, FNP-BC, a Family Nurse Practitioner, Elizabeth Lewis, APRN, WHNP-BC, Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner; Lee Champion, RN, Clinic Director, Risk/Compliance Officer; Traci Gentry, Medical Assistant-Ottawa, Tracie Ostermeier, Medical Assistant-Paola, and Maria Hensley, Health Informatics Manager.
Colorectal Cancer Screening – Quality Measure
According to Dr. Mourad, colorectal cancer screening is a uniform data system (UDS) quality measure that all community health systems, like Health Partnership, use to gauge their performance on fighting this cancer.
This measure, along with all UDS quality measures, is overseen by the QI Committee at Health Partnership. We quickly determined improvements were needed in this area. A multidisciplinary team was assembled to look at ways to end barriers to colorectal screenings and ensure our patients receive the best quality of care possible.
Without a doubt, success begins with our colorectal screening team that puts quality front and center. Here at HPC, we are so proud of our team, their hard work and their commitment to bring quality of care to new heights.
