Oncologic Out-Patient Clinic in a General Hospital

Satisfaction Level and Perception of Quality in Cancer Care

Consumer’s perception of health care quality and his satisfaction is being identified as an important issue in health care industry. Studies addressing patients’ perceptions of quality are available but there is paucity of data regarding the perception of health care providers (service-providers) towards their own services. This study was undertaken to compare the satisfaction level between the patients and health care providers from a radiation oncology department.

A common 16-item questionnaire was served to 40 patients and 40 staff members. The responses were statistically evaluated to assess the satisfaction level among the two groups and the scores were compared to assess the agreement between two groups. Overall, satisfaction level of both groups regarding quality of services ranged from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’. A high level of agreement was observed between the two groups. The physician’s ability to give explanation to patients, helping attitude of the staff and the staff’s concern for patient safety were the most satisfying features of the department while inconvenience during scheduling of appointments, billing and registration process, status of the changing rooms and inter-department coordination were the least satisfying features.

A high level of satisfaction may be achieved from the consumers if service providers are trained to assess the needs and expectations of consumers and to critically evaluate themselves. The service-providers’ perception regarding their own services may serve as a preliminary indicator of overall quality. Future studies in different settings with more number of patients may further explore our results.

Patient satisfaction in the outpatients' chemotherapy unit of Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey: a staff survey

BACKGROUND

We conducted a survey to find out how patients feel about the care they receive in the outpatient chemotherapy unit of Marmara University Hospital.

METHODS

The American College of Physicians Patient Satisfaction survey translated into Turkish was used. A meeting was held with all involved staff, before conducting the survey, to review the purpose and determine the process. The study was conducted with 100 random patients.

RESULTS

Consistent with cancer frequency, most patients had either lung, colorectal or breast cancer. Their insurance was government sponsored in close to 90%. The educational levels were above Turkish median but consistent with the area the hospital is serving. They were coming to the unit on average 8.5 months. The responses were not influenced by the surveyed diagnosis, age, sex or educational status (p > 0,05). Particularly health care team's attention, trust and courtesy came forward as strong points. The weaknesses noted as difficulties in booking an outpatient doctor visit appointment because the phone line was busy or the secretary was not courteous, the excessive amount of time and effort it required to get laboratory and radiology results.

CONCLUSION

The health care system is basically a service based industry and customer satisfaction is at utmost importance just as in other service-oriented sectors. We hope this study will shed light in that area and Turkish health care providers will pay closer attention to how their patients feel about the services that they are getting.

Treatment of resistant non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with cisplatin, etoposide, and bleomycin

A combination of cisplatin (60 mg/m2 i.v. on day 1), etoposide (100 mg/m2 i.v. on days 1-3) and bleomycin (15 mg i.v. on days 1 and 8) (PEB regimen) was given every 4 weeks as salvage therapy in 10 refractory and 13 relapsing patients with poor-prognosis non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. All but one of these patients had previously been treated with anthracycline-containing combination chemotherapy. We observed 4 complete remissions (CRs) and 4 partial responses (PRs), whereas 3 patients showed only a minor response (MR) and 12 were considered to be induction failures. Therefore, the objective (CR + PR) response rate was 35%. The most frequent side effect was vomiting, registered in all patients despite antiemetic treatment. Hematologic toxicity was of moderate degree, and bone marrow recovery was observed after almost all cycles after a 3-week rest period. Since objective responses were achieved only in relapsing patients, the PEB regimen seemed to be effective in these cases, whereas it was useless in early refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.