Dr Kashyap Patel Discusses Challenges of OCM Implementation

Adopting the Oncology Care Model (OCM) is a challenging task for oncology practices that have to redesign their practices, but the shift from volume-based to value-based care is the way of the future, said Kashyap Patel, MD, of the Carolina Blood & Cancer Center.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What was the most challenging part about preparing and adopting the Oncology Care Model across networks of practices?

So, Oncology Care Model had many unknowns, primarily because it’s completely new, episode-based care model. Before the actual application process began, there were so many labor-intensive quality reporting parameters that we thought we had to do, so preparing for the completely unknown way of practicing medicine and bringing the entire practice on board, because we are 5 oncologists, we have a lot of staff. And to be able to convince everyone this is the way of the future was the most challenging part for our transition process from volume to value-based care.

Did adopting the OCM require significant process changes? What were the most challenging workflow changes?

So prior to implementation of the OCM plan, we had to rethink the way we treated patients. The OCM plan is the first step towards shifting from volume to value, and it requires changing the way we treated patients. And anytime, change is always hard, and if it’s one person has to change it’s a different story, but to be able to change the entire practice, allowing patients to walk in for the same-day appointments, expanding the access so that we can deal with any unexpected emergency when it arises, were all processes that we had to completely redesign, so it definitely was a task.