Category: Community Health Center

C. L. Brumback Primary Care Clinics, a nine-clinic FQHC serving over 100,000 low-income patients per year in Palm Beach County, Florida, increased their colorectal cancer screening rate among age-eligible patients from 37% in 2014 to 75% in 2016. The Brumback Clinics have implemented a number of practice changes to increase screening, including weekly provider-specific screening rate reports, patient navigation to encourage patients to complete FIT test kits and collaboration with the local hospital to implement an open access colonoscopy protocol so that patients only need to make one trip to the hospital for their exam. Most innovatively, the Brumback Clinics piloted a “poop on demand” strategy in which the stool sample for the FIT test is collected during the clinic visit rather than at home. This improved the rate of returned FIT test kits by 30%.

Category: Survivor Champion

Candace Henley was diagnosed with stage IIB colon cancer in 2003, six months after first seeking medical care for her symptoms. Candace often tells people she felt like her life was hit by a hurricane as she struggled to care for her five daughters while going through treatment. Today, Candace raises awareness of the disease in minority and medically underserved communities. She launched an awareness event, Blue Hat Bow Tie Sunday™, at her church in Chicago, Illinois in 2010. The program promotes “education through participation” by asking the congregation to wear blue in honor of someone who is currently diagnosed with or has passed on from the disease. Now in its seventh year, the program has spread to 15 churches across the nation. Candace has since founded the Blue Hat Foundation, through which she works as a passionate advocate, speaking to audiences about the life-saving potential of colorectal cancer screening.

Category: Quality Improvement Organization

The Great Plains Quality Innovation Network (GPQIN), the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization for Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, launched an innovative regional collaboration to increase colorectal cancer screening with funding provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. GPQIN partnered with stakeholders across the four-state region to facilitate a regional learning and action network, host webinars and provide technical assistance to support evidence-based systems change interventions at 57 clinics. Of the 43 clinics that are currently able to track their rates, all have reported improvements, with one screening as many as 84% of eligible patients. GPQIN also partnered with key stakeholders to engage 30 organizations in implementing flu-FIT interventions in the fall of 2016, including FQHCs, Indian Health Service clinics, pharmacy sites, and others, many in rural areas.

Category: Community-based Organization

Surgery on Sunday Louisville, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides free colonoscopies and outpatient surgical procedures to uninsured and underinsured residents of Kentucky. The organization is built on a collaborative model in which every hospital in the Louisville area shares a responsibility in providing in kind services to offer colonoscopies to members of the community who could not otherwise afford colorectal cancer screening. These individuals are also at increased risk; in Kentucky, patients who lack insurance have more than twice the odds of being diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer. Since its founding in 2013, Surgery on Sunday Louisville, Inc. has recruited over 500 volunteers to treat more than 270 patients, leading to the treatment of over 125 polyps and two cancers. The organization is now assisting communities in other states to replicate their successful model of partnering to deliver pro bono care to the patients that need it most.

Category: Health Plan

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) raised its colorectal cancer screening rates from 68% in 2001 to 80% in 2009, and has surpassed 80% each year since—a remarkable achievement given that it is the country’s largest integrated health system, serving approximately 9 million veterans. VHA achieved this success by making changes in multiple areas and involving the expertise and cooperation of clinicians, researchers, medical informaticists and organizational leaders. For example, VHA employed clinical decision support tools within its electronic health record to identify Veterans that are eligible for screening. VHA also established new policies that mandated providers to offer screening to those individuals and to provide timely diagnostic evaluation. Performance metrics are used to provide feedback to clinicians. This work is accompanied by a significant investment in research to determine the best ways to screen for colorectal cancer (including a large-scale comparative effectiveness study of FIT and colonoscopy) to ultimately reduce colorectal cancer mortality.