2013 Volume 14 Issue 1 Pages 2-8
To evaluate whether or not cancer care utilizing community coalition-based critical pathways is patient-centered, we elucidated factors that affect the level of satisfaction in breast cancer patients.
A self-reporting questionnaire survey was conducted, with 385 female primary breast cancer patients who received surgeries, asking level of satisfaction with hospital visit, quality of medical care, physicians and breast cancer care as a whole. Depending on whether or not the patients were under the care of a community coalition utilizing critical pathways, the patients were divided into two groups, community coalition group and designated hospital group, and results between the two groups were compared. We examined how each of the survey items affected the level of satisfaction with breast cancer care as a whole.
The number of respondents in the community coalition group and in the designated hospital group was 86 and 151, respectively. Compared to the designated hospital group, more patients in the community coalition group received medical treatment other than for breast cancer, and the level of satisfaction with hospital visits and with physicians was higher, but the degree of recognition to implement examinations as scheduled was lower. There was not a significant difference between the two groups about the level of satisfaction with breast cancer care as a whole. We found a strong correlation between the level of satisfaction with breast cancer care as a whole and the level of satisfaction with physicians. The degree of recognition to discover a recurrence promptly was found to have the strongest influence on the level of satisfaction with breast cancer care as a whole.
Cancer care utilizing community coalition-based critical pathways was found to increase the level of satisfaction with hospital visits and with physicians, and were therefore likely contributing to the level of satisfaction with breast cancer care.
