Presenter: Cristian Soto
Authors: Cristian Soto, Ellen Burgess, Karen Quezada, Dolores Guest
Faculty Advisor: Dolores Guest
Institution: Utah State University
Despite the correlation between favorable nutrition status and ideal clinical outcomes for many oncology patients, there is inadequate nutrition care for oncology patients treated in the outpatient setting nationally. Although emerging data demonstrate oncology centers greatly benefit from the availability of malnutrition screening, diet intervention, and counseling, these services are significantly limited across New Mexico (NM). The goal of this sub-analysis is to characterize, from a patient’s perspective, the availability of nutrition services publicized by outpatient cancer facilities (OCF) throughout NM. We conducted a descriptive analysis utilizing data collected by searching specific terms on publicly available OCF websites to understand what nutrition services are discoverable by a typical patient. To create a master list of OCFs, we utilized a list of the top 20 facilities where cancer patients are diagnosed and treated in NM ranked by patient volume, as well as the 2021 NM Cancer Council Directory. We filtered the lists of facilities based on whether or not they provided treatment in the outpatient setting resulting in the final sample size of 19. Search terms, dates, findings and verification are maintained in an Excel database. Preliminarily, we found that 13 of 19 (68.4%) OCF sites do not publicize nutrition services. Several clinic websites were specific in their nutrition services, while others were vague or difficult to navigate. This early data suggests that whether or not these services are available, patients may not be aware of them, limiting the impact provision of nutrition care can have on patients’ treatment outcomes.