Case Study: an 18-hospital regional health system achieves a caught-up oncology abstraction backlog with Carta Healthcare

18-hospital Regional Health System clears 700-case oncology backlog with Carta Healthcare

An 18-hospital regional health system faced a 700-case backlog in its cancer registry due to a small, specialized team, a challenge that was exacerbated when one abstractor retired. This backlog risked timely quality reporting and hindered process improvement efforts. To address this, the health system partnered with Carta Healthcare for its oncology abstraction services rather than attempting to hire a costly and scarce Certified Oncology Data Specialist.

By leveraging Carta Healthcare as an external partner, the health system fully eliminated the 700-case backlog while maintaining high data quality. This solution provided what the customer termed "independent redundancy," a flexible layer of support that can scale with workload gaps. The vendor, Carta Healthcare, gave the team stability and resilience, ensuring the registry's data remained current and valuable for care and quality reporting.