Claxton-Hepburn, New York chooses C/NET for it´s great support
One Registrars’ Conversion Experience

Carol Lytle started her medical career in nursing at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg, New York seventeen years ago, but when she stepped into the cancer registrar position at CHMC in 2000, it was then that she discovered her true passion. Since that time, Carol has completed cancer registry training, passed her CTR exam and is working on building the foundation for a Commission on Cancer approved program at CHMC. This last goal is what led Carol to C/NET Solutions.

“I was using Abstract Plus for reporting cancer cases to the state. While Abstract Plus was adequate for state reporting, it did not have the features required to meet COC standards.” Also, the annual caseload at CHMC had grown from around 100 in 2000 to over 400 currently, so Carol wanted a way to provide meaningful reports to her medical and administrative staff.

In researching software companies, Carol’s biggest draw to C/NET Solutions was what she heard about the support. “I talked to other registrars in the field about their software vendor’s support and I called the registrars listed on the C/NET Solutions reference and got good remarks concerning support”. This was in keeping with how quickly C/NET Solutions responded to Carol’s initial requests for software information. Carol also felt the reports feature in CNExT was phenomenal compared to other software systems she looked at.

Conversion of a database is never an easy time, but Carol feels the transition to CNExT went very smoothly over all. “The little things that came up were easily and quickly fixed by the C/NET Solutions staff. The staff was wonderful and on top of it”. Very soon after conversion, Carol submitted her first cases in NAACCR record version 11 to the New York State Cancer Registry using CNExT and the file passed the state edits with flying colors.

During the time the conversion took place, Carol was given a quick course in abstracting with CNExT and was able to continue working without experiencing down-time. More in-depth training took place over the web just after the new database was installed at CHMC. “The technical support staff was great at providing thorough training and giving tips on using the software. The hospital is isolated so the web training and support is a great benefit to us.”

So, what are Carol’s goals now that she has new software and a conversion behind her? “I will be adding information to complete 2004 and 2005 cases to meet the COC standards. We will get our program approval and then I am going to tell the world what we have here at Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center.”

July, 2006