Incorporating the Distress Thermometer into preoperative vital signs in patients undergoing ambulatory oncology surgery: a pilot feasibility study.

Background: Despite the extensive literature supporting distress screening at relevant transitions of care, the implementation of distress screening remains limited in ambulatory surgery settings. Our multidisciplinary team completed a pilot study to assess the feasibility and acceptability of including a standardized psychosocial assessment, the Distress Thermometer (DT), with the collection of admission vital signs by Patient Care Technicians (PCTs) in patients undergoing oncology surgery.

Methods: We assessed feasibility by the response rate and acceptability through discussions with the PCTs.

Results: Of the 189 men who underwent radical prostatectomy at our center, 71 were approached with the DT scale, and all patients who were approached completed the DT with no missing data. The staff reported no issues with data collection. A total of 21/71 (30%; 95% CI 19%, 42%) reported a clinically relevant distress DT ≥ 4.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that incorporating the DT into vital sign collection was feasible, acceptable, and provided a valuable assessment.