Simmons Cancer Center

UT Southwestern Medical Center, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dallas, Texas, is located in an urban setting in a large metropolitan area. The cancer center is part of a large university-affiliated academic medical center with 460 beds where care was provided to 3,600 new cancer patients in 2014.

Simmons Cancer Center established its distress screening program in 2011. Distress screening is done at every office visit by nurses in Medical Oncology and Surgical Oncology in the clinic room or by nurses in the chemotherapy infusion center. The site implemented an electronic screening protocol in 2015. There have been 2,512 to 2,843 screenings per month with the new system, with 8 to 11 percent of screens being positive.

Read an in-depth description of the distress screening process at Simmons Cancer Center. Read the complete project white paper, "Psychosocial Distress Screening: Lessons Learned from Three ACCC Member Programs."

Click on image below to enlarge or download distress screening process flowchart here.