Association of patient experience with overall satisfaction with care in a radiation oncology center.

Abstract

363 Background: To better understand what aspects of positive patient experience are associated with patients’ overall satisfaction with Radiation Oncology care, we analyzed patient responses to the Press Ganey Outpatient Oncology Radiation Therapy Survey. Methods: Survey responses completed by 3,533 patients treated at the MD Anderson Radiation Oncology Department from December 2018 to June 2021 were compiled. Responses to individual questions about patient experience were categorized as good/very good vs. very poor/poor/fair. Spearman’s rank correlations among key patient characteristics and all survey questions were calculated. Multivariate logistic regression was performed with selected uncorrelated patient characteristics and questions with strong association with either overall satisfaction or likelihood of recommending services to others. All analyses were performed in SAS 9.4 [SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC]. Results: Median age was 66 years and 50% were female. On multivariate analysis (MVA) predicting good/very good overall rating of care, the following were positively associated with satisfaction: degree to which care was well coordinated among doctors/other caregivers (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 4.65 [95%CI 2.66-8.13], p<0.001); staff courtesy during radiation therapy (aOR 4.49 [2.29-8.77], p<0.001); and staff concern for privacy (aOR 3.31 [1.48-7.84], p=0.004). Region of residency had mixed association (USA, Non-Texas (TX) vs. TX (aOR 2.97 [0.58, 15.23]) and Non-USA vs. TX (aOR 0.10 [0.01, 0.91], p=0.04). Ease of reaching the office staff on the telephone, cleanliness of the facility, ease of finding way around facility, privacy of changing rooms, ease of registration, waiting time in the radiation therapy area and patient age were not associated with overall rating of care on MVA (all p>0.05). On MVA predicting good/very good likelihood of recommending services to others, degree to which care was well coordinated among doctors/other caregivers (aOR 4.98 [3.20-7.74], p<0.001), staff courtesy during radiation therapy (aOR 3.07 [1.72-5.48], p<0.001), and ease of reaching on phone (aOR 1.88 [1.12-3.17], p=0.004) were positively associated. Cleanliness of the facility, ease of finding way around facility, privacy of changing rooms, ease of registration, waiting time in the radiation therapy area and patient age and region of residency were not associated with likelihood of recommending services to others on MVA (p >0.05). Conclusions: Degree to which care was well coordinated and staff courtesy during radiation therapy were most highly associated with overall satisfaction with care and likelihood to recommend services to others in a Radiation Oncology Center. This suggests efforts to improve staff courtesy and care coordination will enhance patient’s overall satisfaction with radiation oncology care.