Multicenter Randomized Trial of Centralized Nurse-Led Telephone-Based Care Coordination to Improve Outcomes After Surgical Resection for Colorectal Cancer: The CONNECT Intervention

Purpose To investigate the effectiveness of a centralized, nurse-delivered telephone-based service to improve care coordination and patient-reported outcomes after surgery for colorectal cancer. Patients and Methods Patients with a newly diagnosed colorectal cancer were randomly assigned to the CONNECT intervention or usual care. Intervention-group patients received standardized calls from the centrally based nurse 3 and 10 days and 1, 3, and 6 months after discharge from hospital. Unmet supportive care needs, experience of care coordination, unplanned readmissions, emergency department presentations, distress, and quality of life (QOL) were assessed by questionnaire at 1, 3, and 6 months. Results Of 775 patients treated at 23 public and private hospitals in Australia, 387 were randomly assigned to the intervention group and 369 to the control group. There were no significant differences between groups in unmet supportive care needs, but these were consistently low in both groups at both follow-up time po...