Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
Accelerating Cancer Screening - Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Survival is dependent on the stage of diagnosis which also affects the cost of care. Denver Health (DH) is an integrated urban safety net health system taking care of over 180,000 patients yearly with over 29,000 patients eligible for colon cancer screening. DH Ambulatory Care Services (ACS) provide care for adult patients in 10 Family Medicine and General Internal Medicine primary care clinics. Sixty percent of DH’s patient population are at < 100% of FPL which is approximately 5 times greater than the city, state and nationally. DH has a strong partnership with the University of Colorado Cancer Center (CU Cancer Center) which dates back nearly 20 years. Through this partnership, DH has built a robust CRC screening and navigation program with a screening rate of 61% in 2022. Although DH’s screening rates have progressively increased during the past 5 years, 61% remains far below the National and Colorado average screening rate of about 72%. DH has implemented a multicomponent, FIT first, strategy for CRC screening and navigation for this underserved population which can further be improved by expanding its follow up for unreturned FIT kits. We intend to utilize funding from the “Accelerating Cancer Screening Program” to increase our outreach and navigation efforts. In the past year we have instituted a pilot to mail FIT kits directly to subsets of our eligible patients. The pilot data suggests that outreach calls increase the return rates for our FIT kits by an additional 25 - 30%. The funds will be utilized to hire Care Navigators who will be trained by CU Cancer Center and a central DH medical assistant to expand our outreach efforts and navigate patients with abnormal screens to colonoscopy and those diagnosed with CRC to timely treatment. Health Center Program Grant number H80CS00218.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).