Investigating the healthcare pathway through patients’ experience and profiles: implications for breast cancer healthcare providers

Abstract

Background: Healthcare systems are facing many changes. Particularly, patients are more engaged in the care process. The medical perspective of the process is insufficient to provide patients with high quality care and service personalisation. This research presents an attempt to complete this medical perspective through an experiential perspective, especially for chronic diseases such as cancer. We investigated patients' experiences and profiles to reach a deeper understanding of their needs and expectations when they confront the disease. The objectives of this research were to model the key stages underling the patient pathway and to identify the challenging touch points of the interactions between patients and healthcare providers. Bringing together findings of patient experience, pathway, and profiles would help all the stakeholders involved to develop better practices for the healthcare process. Methods: A qualitative observational nethnography on a French specialized forum for breast cancer patients "les Impatientes" was conducted. A total of 967 reviews were collected over a complete year period from all over France. Thematic and lexicometric content analysis were performed according to the experience dimensions, the pathway stages and touch points, as well as the patients' profiles. Results: Data analysis shows that the healthcare pathway experienced by the patients is built around three stages. The discovery stage is closely related to the emotional dimension regarding the patient and physician relationship. The examination stage is characterized by a more technical and informational needs for the types of treatments. The follow-up and survivorship stage illustrates the patients' need to assess the treatments' effectiveness and the quality of the follow-up. Moreover, three profiles of patients were identified. The newcomers, the altruists and the autonomous are characterized by different attitudes depending on the stage of the healthcare pathway they were living. Conclusions: Our research presents an original modelling of the patient pathway and profiles beyond the medical process. It gives practical tracks to improve the healthcare pathway. Patients expect healthcare providers to integrate and strengthen several challenging touch points in order to create satisfactory patient experiences and high quality service.

The Impact of Unsupportive Social Support on the Injured Self in Breast Cancer Patients

“…As perceived social support is influenced by the recipient's characteristics and pre-existent context (Collins and Feeney, 2004 ), it could be important to profile patients in terms of needs and personality traits so to develop ad-hoc resources for optimizing social support strategies. This would allow health professionals to work in conjunction with caregivers to raise awareness on the functions of social support and to identify the best support conducts to enact toward the patient (Cherif et al, 2020 ).…”

Breast cancer patient experiences through a journey map: A qualitative study

“…While the patient’s role in the course of the disease and in medical decision making is gaining interest, little research has focused on patient experiences [ 27 , 28 ]. Patient-centered care is an essential component of quality care that seeks to improve responsiveness to patients’ needs, values, and predilections and to enhance psychosocial outcomes, such as anxiety, depression, unmet support needs, and quality of life [ 29 ].…”

“…Nevertheless, few published studies address the experience of women with breast cancer from diagnosis to follow-up. These include a clinical pathway approach in the United Kingdom in the early 21st century [ 35 ], a breast cancer patient journey in Singapore [ 25 ], a netnography of breast cancer patients in a French specialized forum [ 28 ], a meta-synthesis of Australian women living with breast cancer [ 36 ], and a systematic review blending qualitative studies of the narratives of breast cancer patients from 30 countries [ 37 ]. Sanson-Fisher et al [ 29 ] concluded that previously published studies had examined limited segments of patients’ experiences of cancer care and emphasized the importance of focusing more on their experiences across multiple components and throughout the continuum of care.…”

Patient-centered care pathways: what does it mean? An integrative conceptual framework to meet the need of an international consensus: a qualitative systematic review protocol

“…This review focuses on studies that contribute to the definition and conceptualization of the concepts of patient trajectory, patient pathway or patient journey resulting in a theoretical and conceptual contribution. Thus, on the one hand, qualitative studies involving a single episode of care limited in time (a one-time treatment) or space (a single hospital service/department) were excluded to the extent that the care trajectory involves multiple points of interaction over time 26,27 and multiple organizational structures or intra-organizational entities along the care continuum 28 . On the other hand, studies with no theoretical or conceptual input were also excluded.…”