Protecting VA Cancer Patients in Time of COVID-19 with VistA Chemotherapy Manager
A recent study found that cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy or surgery had a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 than to those who had not received recent treatment.
This is because treatment can often compromise the patient’s immune system. During these challenging times, accuracy and safety are especially important in oncology, which offers highly complex treatment regimens and order sets with high-risk, even hazardous, medications. It’s critical to identify high-risk patients before these procedures move forward.
The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Central Cancer Registry (VACCR) also reports more than forty thousand cancer cases annually, which is approximately three percent of the United States cancer population each year. This points to an expanded need for the right solutions for protecting Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) chemotherapy patients during the pandemic.
Fortunately, the DSS VistA Chemotherapy Manager (VCM) offers a clinical decision support tool (DST) that automates the entire chemotherapy treatment process. VCM streamlines the oncology workflow for physicians, pharmacists and nurses – enhancing safety by removing manual processes, improving efficiency, and encouraging collaboration.
The system also integrates with the VA internal systems, is already approved for use within the VA Network, and is compatible with any Electronic Health Record system.
“Cancer patients are 3.5 times more likely to enter the ICU or die with COVID than others,” said a DSS VCM user. “So, identification of them and particularly those immunocompromised by chemotherapy is very important.”
The solution also offers a highly intuitive, user-friendly interface to provide the full range of automated chemotherapy administration and advanced safety features, including:
Integrates with VistA/CPRS
Automates dose calculations and modifications
Enables treatment plans to be assigned and reviewed electronically
Transmits chemotherapy orders without disrupting pharmacy workflows
Includes a comprehensive database of standardized chemotherapy regimens
Supports treatment plan cancellations
Sends drug interaction alerts
It has also yielded positive results for the VA.
“The VCM-DSS solution was a great help in identifying our patients who were treated in the last 6 months from the VCM database (~550 patients) using a SQL query,” stated another VCM user. “This will allow our hospital to quickly identify the immunocompromised patients that are admitted during this pandemic to provide the best patient care.”
To learn more about VCM, as well as the full-range of federal health IT solutions from DSS, please click here.