Colorectal Cancer Screening and Risk Assessment Workflow and Documentation Guide for Health Center NextGen Users

This Guide provides focused documentation to assist users of NextGen software to improve the process of assessing, documenting, tracking, and following up on colorectal cancer screening. The Guide gives particular attention to assessment of personal and family risk and the tracking and follow-up of screening results that are not addressed in the standard NextGen guidance documents.

The Guide was initially developed by Harbor Health Services in collaboration with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and NACHC, with support from the American Cancer Society. 

Advanced Colorectal Polyp Brief

The National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable created the Advanced Colorectal Polyp GI Brief to help endoscopists and primary care clinicians identify patients with advanced colorectal polyps, understand the epidemiology and associated risk factors, and most importantly know the risks of colorectal neoplasia for patients with advanced colorectal polyps and their first-degree relatives (parents, siblings, children).

This brief aims to:

  1. Remind endoscopists that patients with an advanced colorectal polyp and their close relatives are at increased risk for advanced colorectal polyps and colorectal cancer;
  2. Keep endoscopists up to date with current guidelines; and,
  3. Provide template letters to communicate colonoscopy and pathology results, risk status, and follow-up recommendations for patients and close relatives.

Supplemental template letters: 

Learn more on how gastroenterologists and endoscopists can play a role in the national efforts to improve colorectal cancer screening rates:

2019 Colorectal Cancer Screening Messaging Guidebook: Recommended Messages to Reach the Unscreened

In 2018, the NCCRT and the American Cancer Society researched screened and unscreened populations to better understand and address screening disparities. The goals of the market research were to:

  • Measure general awareness of colorectal cancer screening methods.
  • Understand the rationale, attitudes, and motivations for being screened or not.
  • Analyze priority populations such as adults aged 50-54, rural dwellers, and the marketplace insured.
  • Identify logical and emotional drivers that could encourage screening.
  • Use the drivers to create and test messages that would motivate unscreened individuals.

This guidebook shares the findings and recommendations gathered from that research and is further designed to help in the education, empowerment, and mobilization of those who are not getting screened for colorectal cancer. Our hope is that our partners can take this research and the recommended messaging provided to strengthen your own communications campaigns, creating resources that resonate with the target audiences even more by using your own creativity, innovation and spokespersons.

The NCCRT would like to thank the Public Awareness and Social Media Task Group members who participated in the conceptualization of this Guidebook’s research and content. Also, a very special thank you to the 80% in Every Community Market Research Advisory Group for their participation, expertise, and oversight. 

Other Guides and Resources: 

The Hispanics/Latinos and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide and Asian Americans and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide introduce market research about the unscreened from these populations and include tested messages in Spanish and several Asian languages. The 2017 Communications Guidebook is also still a useful resource for developing your messaging campaigns. 

2019 Messaging Guidebook – Table of Contents (Section Downloads Below)

Other tools were developed during the 80% by 2018 campaign and can still help you promote and evaluate your communications:

More communications tools and resources will be coming soon!

 

80% in Every Community 2019 Messaging Guidebook: Recommended Messages to Reaching the Unscreened – July 16, 2019

This webinar provided an introduction to the 2019 80% in Every Community Messaging Guidebook: Recommended messages to reach the unscreened. The guidebook serves as a resource to both better understand the motivations, attitudes, and barriers of key unscreened populations, while it also recommends market tested messages that can educate and motivate these key audiences on the importance of colorectal cancer screening. The 2019 update to this NCCRT resource includes new findings, new population profiles, and message delivery insights that will better inform our efforts to improve colorectal cancer screening rates to 80% in Every Community. 

Speakers:

  • Michelle Aubertine, KS&R
  • Bill Willard, American Cancer Society

 

Penn State Health Electronic Employee Survey

Physician researchers at Penn State Health developed this colorectal cancer screening uptake and risk assessment tool for use by large entities such as employers and medical practices. The survey tool assesses whether an employee is up to date with screening based on 2016 USPSTF guidelines and also includes a risk assessment checklist to determine if the individual is at increased risk for colorectal cancer.

Penn State Health administered the survey to 6,188 employees, with a response rate of 45%. For respondents ≥50 years, 81% reported up-to-date colorectal cancer screening; thirty-three percent of all participants self-identified as high-risk.

Large employers are encouraged to adapt the survey tool and introduction letter for use with their employees.

Evaluation: The survey was administered electronically to all Penn State Health employees ≥40 years via an online platform. The survey anonymously collected demographic data. Associations between demographic/ risk factors and up-to-date screening status were examined using Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables and Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test for quantitative variables.

Permissions: These tools can be used by any large employer to measure their colorectal cancer screening rates.

Publication date: July 2018

Post date: December 18, 2018

Contact: Send comments, questions, and suggestions to Thomas McGarrity, MD at tmcgarrity@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

How To Assure Follow Up Colonoscopy For Positive FIT From The Process Side – January 30, 2018

This webinar was a repeat of one of our most highly rated workshops from the NCCRT meeting last month. The purpose of the webinar was to review evidence and processes to help ensure that patients obtain a follow-up colonoscopy after a positive test result.

Speakers:

  • Kevin Selby, MD, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research
  • Amanda Petrik, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research
  • Frank Colangelo, MD, FACP, Premier Medical Associates
  • Jason A. Dominitz, MD, MHS, FASGE, AGAF Department of Veterans Affairs

Note:  This webinar will not address access issues. For advice on securing access to colonoscopy, check out our webinars on Links of Care from 2017 and 2015. For more general guidance on implementing FIT screening programs, view this webinar or check out our new resource on stool based testing.

Employer Strategies For Success – November 30, 2017

This American Cancer Society webinar explored how employers can impact their employees’ health through colorectal cancer screening interventions. The webinar began with a brief introduction to steps employers can take to increase screening rates at their company and then featured three corporate partners who have implemented effective strategies. The webinar also discussed how the language of the 80% by 2018 initiative is transitioning as we look into 2018 and beyond. Speakers included special corporate guest presenters from Ameren, AT&T, and Progressive Insurance.

Review the brief, What Can Employers Do To Advance The 80% Screening Goal?, to start learning how employers can be part of the national effort to make sure 80% of adults ages 50 and older are regularly screened for colorectal cancer.

Colorectal Cancer Screening In American Indian & Alaska Native Communities – November 28, 2017

This webinar explored the opportunities and barriers related to delivering quality colorectal cancer screening and follow-up care in health care settings serving American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. The webinar provided a review of basic basic data on colorectal cancer incidence, mortality, and screening rates in AI/AN populations, an overview of the American Cancer Society and the NCCRT’s work to address this issue, and presentations from two AI/AN-serving healthcare systems about their innovative approaches to increasing colorectal cancer screening.

Learn more about the American Cancer Society and the NCCRT’s work to address this issue in the post-meeting report from the April 2016 one-day summit to explore the challenges and potential solutions to improving access to quality colorectal cancer screening in this population.

Speakers:

  • Kris Rhodes, MPH, Chief Executive Officer, American Indian Cancer Foundation (Moderator)
  • Laura Makaroff, DO, Senior Director, Cancer Control Intervention, American Cancer Society, Inc.
  • Jessica Deaton, RN, BSN, Care Manager, Oklahoma City Indian Clinic
  • Richard Mousseau, MS, Director, Community Health Prevention Programs, Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board
best practices handbook for health plans

“Thank you! This is exactly the type of information health plans need to pass to one another to improve partnership/collaboration, as the consumer will benefit at the end.”

“I really enjoyed that each of the health plans featured in the toolkit highlights a different intervention or opportunity. That gives our partners many approaches to choose from.”

Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans

Health plans have an essential role to play in the effort to screen more Americans for colorectal cancer, particularly given that seven out of 10 people who are unscreened are covered by insurance.

Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans, provides a first-of-its-kind compilation of best practices, case studies, templates and tools, that will kick start or infuse health plans’ efforts to save more lives and prevent more cancers.

To develop the handbook, the NCCRT convened an advisory group of health plan experts and interviewed high-performing health plans to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to increasing screening among members. Thank you to the many individuals and organizations who contributed their time and expertise to developing this much requested resource.

In the future, we hope to update this handbook with more case studies from high-performing health plans. If you have a story to share about how your health plan has worked to raise colorectal cancer screening rates, please email nccrt@cancer.org.

NCCRT’s issue brief, The Importance of Waiving Cost-sharing for Follow-up Colonoscopies, provides additional information on the colonoscopy copay issue.

View the March 28, 2017 webinar introducing the Handbook for a guided tour of the best practices, case studies, and templates and tools found within the handbook, and hear from one of the profiled health plans.

Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook For Health Plans

Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans – March 28, 2017

This webinar introduced the new NCCRT Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans. The purpose of this handbook is to provide health plans with advice on the design and delivery of effective colorectal cancer screening programs. The webinar provided participants with a guided tour of the best practices, case studies, and templates and tools found within the handbook, including a deeper dive into the exemplary practices for one of the profiled health plans.

Speakers:

  • Tamara O’Shaughnessy, QNA Group
  • Anshul Dixit, MD, MPH, MBA, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield

“This was one of the best colorectal cancer presentations, and it also provided information we can readily utilize with our current health plans in support of the 80% by 2018 initiative.”