Cancer patient satisfaction with care

Abstract

A diagnosis of cancer places considerable stress on patients and requires them to make major adjustments in many areas of their lives. As a consequence, considerable demands are placed on health care providers to satisfy the complex care needs of cancer patients. Currently, there is little available information to indicate the extent to which cancer patients are satisfied with the quality of care they receive. The present study assessed the perceptions of 232 ambulatory cancer patients about the importance of and satisfaction with the following aspects of care: doctors technical competence and interpersonal and communication skills, accessibility and continuity of care, hospital and clinic care, nonmedical care, family care, and finances. The results indicate that all 60 questionnaire items used were considered to reflect important aspects of care, but that greater importance was given to the technical quality of medical care, the interpersonal and communication skills of doctors, and the accessibility of care. Most patients were satisfied with the opportunities provided to discuss their needs with doctors, the interpersonal support of doctors, and the technical competence of doctors. However, few patients were satisfied with the provision of information concerning their disease, treatment, and symptom control and the provision of care in the home and to family and friends.

Patient–physician communication concerning participation in cancer chemotherapy trials

“…Another may be that the patients' ability to comprehend and the desire to obtain information was truly underestimated. The latter explanation is in accordance with the finding by others suggesting that physicians have difficulties in estimating the amount and type of information that patients want and their effectiveness in imparting information (Blanchard et al, 1988;Mackillop et al, 1988;Wiggers et al, 1990).…”

Helping patients with localized prostate carcinoma manage uncertainty and treatment side effects

“…However, a common source of illness uncertainty is a lack of information about the nature, course, and prognosis of the disease. 42 A number of investigations of communication between physicians and patients revealed communication problems that generated informational uncertainty. Uncertainty about disease status and disease containment appears to increase when the benefits from treatment are discussed in terms of statistics and probabilities, an approach commonly used by physicians when talking with newly diagnosed patients.…”

Research Training in Biopsychosocial Breast Cancer Research

“…They claim that it is a complex, multidimensional variable, which does not yet have an adequate theoretical formulation (Avis, Bond, & Arthur, 1995;Carr-Hill, 1992;Strasser, Aharony, & Greenberger, 1992). Others have noted that global ratings of patient satisfaction with medical care tend to be quite high, to be lacking in variability, and to be generally unrelated to efficacy of intervention or patient psychological adjustment (Baider, Uziely, & De-Nour, 1997;Oberst, 1984;Wiggers et al, 1990). In this light, perhaps it should not be surprising that we found patient satisfaction with the cancer diagnostic consultation to be unrelated to patients' subsequent psychological distress.…”

“…In particular, it may be important to differentiate between patients' perceptions of their physicians' technical competence during the interview and perceptions of the physicians' skill in managing the interpersonal aspects of the communication (e.g., emotional supportiveness and caring). Previous research has suggested that medical patients are capable of distinguishing among physicians' interpersonal, communication, and technical skills, and that these are among the most important dimensions for determining patients' perceptions of the quality of medical care (Cockburn et al, 1991;Di Matteo & Hays, 1980;Thorn & Campbell, 1997;Wiggers, O'Donovan, Redman, & Sanson-Fisher, 1990). Although research has documented the relative importance of these three factors for patient outcomes such as satisfaction (Wiggers et al), trust in the physician (Thorn & Campbell, 1997), and compliance with medical recommendations (Willson & McNamara, 1982), no research to date has compared the importance of these factors with regard to patients' psychological adjustment.…”