Follow-Up & Data Management Flashcards

A cancer registry receives a returned mail piece for a patient last seen 3 years ago. What is the FIRST recommended step to locate the patient?

Answer: Contact the patient's physician of record

Contacting the physician of record is the first recommended step because the provider may have current contact information or updated address details.

Which federal legislation most directly governs the sharing of patient follow-up information between cancer registries across state lines?

Answer: Cancer Registries Amendment Act (CRAA)

The Cancer Registries Amendment Act (CRAA) specifically authorizes data sharing among central cancer registries for follow-up and research purposes.

A patient's follow-up status is coded 'lost to follow-up.' Which condition best defines this status?

Answer: Patient cannot be located after exhausting all available tracing resources

Lost to follow-up means all reasonable tracing efforts have been exhausted without establishing contact or determining vital status.

In abstracting follow-up data, the date of last contact should reflect:

Answer: The most recent date the patient was known to be alive

Date of last contact represents the most recent documented date the patient was confirmed to be alive, regardless of the source.

Which data quality measure specifically evaluates whether registry follow-up rates meet NPCR/SEER completeness benchmarks?

Answer: Percentage of cases with follow-up within the past 15 months

Registries are evaluated on the percentage of living cases with documented contact within the past 15 months to ensure follow-up completeness.

A patient is found in the National Death Index (NDI) with a cause of death listed as 'cardiac arrest.' The primary cancer was colon. How should the cancer registrar code the vital status?

Answer: Dead — other cause

When NDI identifies the cause of death as a non-cancer condition, vital status is coded dead with another cause, not the cancer.

Which of the following is an advantage of passive follow-up over active follow-up in a hospital cancer registry?

Answer: Lower resource expenditure through linkage with existing databases

Passive follow-up uses database linkages (NDI, vital statistics) to determine vital status without direct patient contact, reducing staff workload and cost.