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64 Background: In the era of increasing therapeutic options and complexity of disease, some cancer patients (pts) continue aggressive treatment even within days of death. Previous studies report 30-66% of pts do not receive hospice or palliative services in the last month of life and many are enrolled in hospice < 3 days before death. Quality measures are endorsed by ASCO, National Quality Forum, and Oncology Care Model to increase hospice utilization. It is shown that pts enrolled in hospice have increased survival time with reduced in-hospital resources. These benefits increase the longer pts are in hospice. We hypothesize early identification of high risk pts by a multidisciplinary group and formulation of a care plan will prompt early discussion for hospice eligibility, increasing referrals to hospice and the number of days spent in hospice. Methods: As reported (ASCO 2018, Abst 6547), an Interdisciplinary Care Team (ICT) was created with palliative medicine and oncology physicians, nurses, and social workers. Twice monthly pts with high utilization over a 60-day period were identified. Care plans (CP) were created using a team based approach with parallel input from outpatient teams. CP was communicated back to the primary team. Results: 112 pts were discussed over 24 months; 39 pts died with a solid tumor malignancy and this was our study cohort. 85% pts (33/39) were referred to or had a hospice discussion and 82% pts (27/33) enrolled. 6 pts declined and 6 acutely died. Of the 27 pts that entered hospice 78% (21/27) were enrolled > 3 days and 22 % (6/27) < 3 days. Average number days in hospice was 19.7 (median 11) for all who entered hospice. In the subgroup that were enrolled for > 3 days, average number days was 25 (median 21). 62% pts (17/27) entered hospice within 60 days of ICT meeting and CP. Conclusions: Early identification of high-utilizing cancer patients along with review by ICT may correlate with early recognition of hospice eligibility, enrollment, and therefore greater number days spent in hospice. This increases hospice utilization allowing patients and families to experience the full benefit of hospice-directed care. Further interventions should be explored in optimizing transitions of care.

6547Background: Due to complexity of disease and treatments, oncology patients (pts) have among the highest hospitalization rate. In our cancer institute, just 6% of all discharged pts accounted fo...

Abstract 3173 The Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute completed a pilot project on distress screening as part of the plan to address the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer requirement (Standard 3.2: Psychosocial Distress Screening) to screen malignant and benign hematology patients for distress and psychosocial health needs. Over a two week period every hematology patient seeing a physician or mid-level provider completed the distress screening instrument Emotions Thermometer (ET), a five dimensional tool that includes four predictor domains: distress, anxiety, depression, anger and one outcome domain of need for help. Each domain is rated on a 0 to 10 Likert type scale, in a thermometer format. With respect to validity and reliability, the sensitivity and specificity of the ET tool has been found comparable to known validity and reliability of other accepted measures of distress, depression, and anxiety (Mitchell, et al, 2009). Per National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines, a score of 4 or higher on distress screening warrants a referral to a psychosocial professional. Distress scores 4 and over were compared among the diagnoses using the Chi-Square test. When the overall P-value was significant (P Of the five thermometer domains, patients scored highest on anxiety. There were no differences among diagnoses on anger (P=0.51), but there were differences in the other four domains (P While this pilot project does not answer why multiple myeloma patients report levels of psychosocial distress significantly higher than other hematology patients, increased attention needs to be given to address these patients' experience of anxiety, depression, and distress. This project provides valuable information about the levels of distress experienced among all hematology patients and is useful for determining staffing levels of psychosocial professionals needed to address distress. Percentage of Emotion Thermometer Scores Over 4 Diagnosis Distress Anxiety Depression Anger Help Benign Hem 18% 27% 18% 12% 7% Leuk/MDS/CML 19% 28% 17% 9% 14% Lymph/CLL 18% 31% 16% 14% 13% Myeloma 38% 44% 35% 15% 27% P-value Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.