About C‑PORT

C‑PORT is a secure web-based tool that simulates the activity of an adult chemotherapy day case service. It is owned and operated by the National Health Service (NHS) in England and was developed to support the uptake and access to cancer drugs by helping staff to meet the challenges of the Cancer Reform Strategy 2007 and the National Chemotherapy Advisory Group report Chemotherapy services in England: ensuring quality and safety (August 2009). It is also intended to facilitate collaboration between providers and commissioners in achieving service improvement and appropriate investment in chemotherapy service delivery.

The software development has been driven by user feedback. It has been tested and validated with the support of healthcare staff in England. Along with the software comes an array of documentation to support the user to implement and operate C‑PORT in their practice. C PORT offers a safe test environment where the potential impact of change can be evaluated, minimising service disruption. A range of scenarios can be modelled which include:

  • adding new regimens and treatments (changing your case-mix)
  • increasing the number of patients (changing your case-load)
  • changing your treatment delivery process
  • modifying your resource mix and/or resource availability

C‑PORT provides users with a very visual picture of how their service operates in terms of:

  • capacity and demand
  • resource utilisation
  • patient delays
  • case mix
  • regimen uptake

Main Features of C‑PORT

1. Understanding the current position.

The exercise of C‑PORT implementation has proved valuable, in itself, at the participating centres since it has brought together staff from different departments in a collaborative planning exercise. C‑PORT has facilitated the collection, analysis and interpretation of data from multiple sources in a way that has not previously been possible. This process has lead to greater inter-departmental communication, collaboration and understanding.

2. Modelling the effects of potential change.

“Scenario planning”, undertaken using C‑PORT, has proven to be a safe and useful tool for capacity planning. There is clear evidence emerging to suggest that C‑PORT can help to avoid “bottle-necks” and smooth day-to-day delivery of chemotherapy services which, in turn, has a beneficial effect on the patient experience within the treatment pathway and also on staff morale.

3. Planning for increased and better chemotherapy services.

Experience to date has shown C‑PORT to be effective in planning for the introduction of new drug regimens (for example new drugs approved by NICE in the UK) through to planning for a “new build” chemotherapy unit. Quantitative data are also emerging to suggest that C‑PORT scenario planning can yield circa 10% improvement in efficiency without the need for additional resource.

Further Information

Case Studies

These case studies show how organisations have successfully used C‑PORT to understand their service,plan and implement change. Many of the case studies demonstrate that by working together teams can improve the patient experience and improve productivity often by simply changing working patterns or patient arrivals.

Highlights include:

  • repatriation of patients to local services
  • improvement of patient wait times
  • improvement in staff utilisation and morale
  • better use and undertstanding of-data
  • introduction of new regimens

They demonstrate that services who work collaboratively achieve better performance and ownership of the service which in turn will improve quality and reduce risk.

C‑PORT case studies can be accessed here

If you would like to submit a case study then please contact Marie Palmer

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