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Embed and Spread survivorship care project – Mildura Base Public Hospital and Bendigo Health

Loddon MalleeStatewide - Adult

Purpose

To learn about the status of survivorship care, including issues and opportunities for improvement.

What happened / what we did

Embed and Spread was a statewide project funded by the Victorian Department of Health and led by the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC) in collaboration with Cancer Council Victoria and implementation support from the VICS. Sites in the Loddon Mallee region included Mildura Base Public Hospital and Bendigo Health.

Participation included:

  • a baseline site survey about current survivorship care
  • a webinar on ‘Delivering Cancer Survivorship Care’ run by the ACSC and Cancer Council Victoria via Zoom
  • at Bendigo Health, a quality improvement pilot to embed survivorship into standard care for early breast cancer patients.

Outputs

  • Summary report for each site of their responses to the baseline site survey, outlining strengths and areas for improvement in survivorship care
  • Recommendations for improving survivorship care at each site, along with numerous survivorship resources to assist including online Survivorship Care Plans
  • Poster presentation on embedding survivorship into standard care for early breast cancer patients, presented at the Cancer Survivorship Conference 2023.

Impact

The project continued into 2022 with repeat site surveys and a final report.

Survivorship appointments for early breast cancer patients provided an opportunity to identify patient needs and provide referrals and resources. Patients highly rated the survivorship appointments. This service is now offered to early breast cancer patients (who are not referred into the nurse practitioner survivorship clinic) as part of standard care.

For more information, email LMICS@bendigohealth.org.au