Shortening the Wait for Cancer Treatment

Like many comprehensive cancer centers, at Cleveland Clinic it is a priority to get patients in quickly for an initial consultation. Our average time to see a patient with a new diagnosis of cancer is less than 7 days. In many cases, we are able to get these new patients in just days later to begin treatment as well. How can we make this the standard for every patient? Over the past 3 years, we have experimented with this idea and reduced the average time to treatment by 33%, with the largest cancer programs (breast, colorectal, and lung) showing the greatest improvement in time to treatment.



To make this happen, we started at the top. Buy-in from leadership across all specialties was important, as it set the tone for the entire enterprise. As cancer program leaders and teams intensely focused on improving time to treatment, we examined hundreds of operational opportunities across all disciplines and worked together to create efficiencies, from coordinating clinic visits for patients to aligning OR times for breast surgeons and plastic surgeons. As the results of our improvements became clear, our caregivers started to understand the driving force. It wasn’t about the data; it was about improving care for our patients.