Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates
Learn from CareMessage customers on ways using CareMessage can improve Colorectal Cancer screening rates.
THE PROBLEM
The Need for Increased Colorectal Cancer Screenings
- Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 3rd leading cause of death for US men and women, with nearly 53,000 deaths annually.
- CRC is most commonly diagnosed after age 65, but 10% occur in those younger than 50; the incidence in adults age 40-49 has increased 15% since 2000.
- In FQHCs, CRC screening had been slowly increasing, but experienced a COVID- related drop of 5.5pp, or 12%, in 2020.
- In 2016, 25% of eligible adults in the U.S. had never been screened for CRC.
- In 2018, 31% of the eligible US population (and 47% of those age 50-64!) was not up to date with CRC screening.
THE SOLUTION
CareMessage Offers Flexibility to Maximize Reach
CareMessage offers pre-built Outreach messages and Health Education Programs that walk patients through the importance of screening, and encourage them to complete and return a FIT Kit. Our customers utilize these programs to provide personalized outreach to patients, and close gaps in care.
Learn from real CareMessage customers below!
Lone Star Circle of Care in Southeast Texas
Lone Star was awarded a 3-year CPRIT (Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas) grant to increase colorectal cancer screening via 300 monthly mailed FIT kits, coverage for diagnostic colonoscopies, and navigation services. Lone Star uses CareMessage to notify and educate patients about the FIT kits and the importance of screening.
- Patients are enrolled in a custom CareMessage FIT kit program that first informs the patient that a kit has been mailed and then sends up to 4 follow up texts, reminding and encouraging completion and mailing of the test.
- The Coordinator at Lone Star navigates all positive screenings to diagnostic colonoscopy and cancer care.
- In an 18-month period, Lone Star mailed 5,033 FIT kits and had a 30% return rate, which is on the high end of CPRIT's estimate of 20%-30% return rate for FIT kits.
- Of those 5,033 patients, 80 returned positive FITs that needed to be navigated to a diagnostic colonoscopy, and 3 cases of cancer were diagnosed.
Lone Star has also been able to experiment with different messaging within CareMessage.
Opted-In Mailings: During November and December, which typically see a low return rate due to the holiday season, they utilize "opted-in mailings." In this scenario, an invitation to receive a FIT kit is sent first via a CareMessage outreach message and kits are only mailed to respondents who answer "YES".
Additional Outreach: In this experiment, one additional CareMessage outreach message was sent after the FIT kit reminder program messaging ended. The message asks the patient if they have sent back their FIT kit. Not only did Lone Star receive more responses to this additional messaging than expected with a 24% response rate, but they learned that half of those respondents had mailed their kit back, and Lone Star had not received it. This allowed the team at Lone Star to do some additional investigation around where those kits ended up. Some key learnings from this:
- Some patients were referring to an Immunological Fecal Occult Blood (iFOB) test given to them at the clinic, not the FIT kit that was mailed to them. This allowed Lone Star to provide additional education to their patients.
- Some patients had returned their FIT kit to the clinic in person, rather than mail it to the lab as instructed. This allowed the Lone Star team to search their clinic for these kits and send them off to be tested.
- Patients are more engaged in the FIT kit messages than the Lone Star team initially assumed.
Kenosha Community Health Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha Community Health Center utilizes CareMessage along with several other strategies to encourage colorectal cancer screening in patients.
- Dedicated team: Kenosha put together a team to ensure that all areas of the screening process were covered. This team consists of: a Provider Advisor; a Referral Coordinator (for colonoscopy referrals), an RN (monitoring FIT kit orders and returns), and AmeriCorps members.
- Surveys: Custom patient surveys in CareMessage allow the team at Kenosha to uncover barriers to colorectal cancer screenings. With this information that can tailor their approach to different groups of patients.
- Azara Patient Outreach (APO) powered by CareMessage: By utilizing patient data in Azara and automated messaging via APO, Kenosha sends reminders to groups of patients to return their FIT kits.
- CMO Activation of Providers: The CMO at Kenosha encourages providers to have conversations about CRC screening. After these conversations, patients receive messages via APO, powered by CareMessage, to drive annual preventive exams.
- Financial incentive: Kenosha was able to offer a $20 gift card per returned FIT kit for a limited time, again, combining that with the automated messaging via APO.
RESOURCES
Download a guide with additional data and tips.
