Corralling Cancer With Coughs and Sneezes—Allergy Team Helps Screen for Cancer

Any time a patient is seen, a “proactive office encounter” message pops up in the member’s electronic record if he or she is due for a health screening or if important health data needs to be updated. The members of South San Francisco allergy department took the important work of taking the next step to heart: Following up on the prompt and offering to schedule the patient for the screening or asking the necessary questions to fill in missing information.

Here's What Worked

• Making a joint commitment that when there is a KP HealthConnect® notification that a patient is due for a health screening, team members follow up by offering to schedule the patient for the screening or asking the necessary questions to fill in missing information in the patient’s medical record
• Creating a script to help staff members talk to patients about updating their health needs and posting laminated cards on computers to serve as reminders
• Reporting the weekly screening numbers to staff members so they can track their progress and recognize where they missed opportunities to follow through on the KP HealthConnect® prompts

What can your team do proactively to ask patients about their health screenings?