Cancer Clinic Redesign: Opportunities for Resource Optimization.

Ambulatory cancer centers face a fluctuating patient demand and deploy specialized personnel who have variable availability. This undermines operational stability through the misalignment of resources to patient needs, resulting in overscheduled clinics, budget deficits, and wait times exceeding provincial targets. We describe the deployment of a Learning Health System framework for operational improvements within the entire ambulatory center.

Quality of telephone nursing services for adults with cancer and related non-emergent visits to the emergency department.

A quality improvement project was conducted to determine the quality of telephone nursing for patients with cancer symptoms. Eligible patients were ones who telephoned the nurse about cancer symptom(s) within four weeks prior to an emergency department (ED) visit not requiring hospital admission. Experienced oncology nurses extracting data indicated appropriateness of ED visits and opportunities for improvement.

A century of CAM in New Zealand: a struggle for recognition.

This paper highlights the emergence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) within New Zealand. The historical path of development and acceptance of CAM from 1908 will be outlined, with reference to the development of current legislation and government policy. Emphasis will be placed on rapid changes occurring over the last decade.

Acupuncture use for pre-birth treatment. A literature review and audit-based research.

Traditionally acupuncture at four points, Yanglingquan GB-34, Zusanli ST-36, Sanyinjiao SP-6 and Zhiyin BL-67, has been used for pre-birth treatments (Maciocia and West (eds.), Acupuncture in Pregnancy and Childbirth, Churchill Livingston, New York, 2000, pp. 559-575, Chapter 44).