Don't keep women waiting on a diagnosis

In December 1999, the administration at Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospitals in Columbus, OH, launched a benchmark study to determine how long it took for a woman diagnosed with a breast abnormality to find out if she had breast cancer. It was determined that it took an average of 27 days, better than the national average of 42 days, but far below the gold-standard programs around the country that took 24 hours to five working days. To remedy the situation, Patti Dunn, RN, BSN, OCN, was asked to oversee the process and create a system that coordinated care across the continuum to better meet the needs of women with breast health problems.