A Systematic Review on the Assessment of Patient Satisfaction in Onco-Hematologic Clinic

Patient satisfaction is the extent to which patients are happy with their health care, both inside and outside of the doctor’s office. A measure of care quality, patient satisfaction gives providers insights into various aspects of medicine, including the effectiveness of their and their level of empathy. The main purpose of this research is to evaluate whether the assessment of patient satisfaction resulting in better clinical outcomes or not. his systematic review is conducted by searching electronic databases including Pubmed. The assessment of patient satisfaction as ‘evaluation index’ is important because it helps in understanding their expectations as ‘client’ and to identify the needs and expectations of the health system. Results showed that institutions having higher rate of patient satisfaction had higher patient care performance, lower readmission rates, and lower mortality than others having lower rate of patient satisfaction. Although there has been an improvement in patient satisfaction with physicians during the past 7 years, this improvement was not seen in all hospitals. We conclude that more rigorous research is needed to identify effective and generalisable interventions to improve patient satisfaction. It is examined if hospitals with high patient satisfaction have lower levels of performance on accepted measures of quality and efficiency. However, the participation of clinical pharmacists as part of the multidisciplinary team in the oncology department is still in its infancy with roles yet to be defined. Babisha J Department of Pharmacy Practice, KMCH college of Pharmacy, Kovai Estate, Kalapatti Road, Coimbatore641048, Tamil Nadu, India (Affiliated to The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University). Submission: 25 August 2019 Accepted: 30 August 2019 Published: 30 September 2019 www.ijppr. humanjournals.com Citation: Babisha J. Ijppr.Human, 2019; Vol. 16 (2): 176-181. 177 INTRODUCTION Patient satisfaction is a measure of the extent to which a patient is content with the health care which they received from their health care provider. In evaluations of health care quality, patient satisfaction is a performance indicator in health care settings. Because patients may be dissatisfied with health care which improves their health or satisfied with health care which does not, there are circumstances in which patient satisfaction is not a valid indicator of health care quality even though it is often used as such. Many studies have failed to identify a relationship between patient satisfaction and health care quality. Patient satisfaction is an important and commonly used indicator for measuring the quality in health care. Patient satisfaction affects clinical outcomes, patient retention, and medical malpractice claims. It affects the timely, efficient, and patient-centered delivery of quality health care. Patient satisfaction is thus a proxy but a very effective indicator to measure the success of doctors and hospitals. The feedback given by the patient helps to improve the work of the physician, place, and also the system. 1. LITERATURE SEARCH A systematic literature search was conducted to identify articles containing information on patient satisfaction assessment on onco-hematologic clinic. Abstracts captured by the systematic literature search from 2014 to 2019, databases were first screened against the criteria. Many studies have done based on the assessment of patient satisfaction in hospital settings. Few of the studies are reviewed here. Diplock BD et.al. (2019). , aimed to assess the impact of implementing Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) screening on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and patient satisfaction with care (PSC) in ambulatory oncology patients. ESAS is now a standard of care in Ontario cancer centers, with the goal of improving symptom management in cancer patients, yet few studies examine impact of ESAS on patient outcomes. www.ijppr. humanjournals.com Citation: Babisha J. Ijppr.Human, 2019; Vol. 16 (2): 176-181. 178 Cannella Laura et.al(2018). , has demonstrated that careful planning, adequate logistics,and elaborate methodology allow to successfully integrate the patient’s experience in routine care. These include improved patient-physician communication,better symptom management and in patients with advanced disease,also fewer hospitalizations and prolonged survival. Prem S. Panda et.al(2018). , suggests that the main aim of the Health Service organization is creation of satisfaction among their service consumers. Mismatch between patient’s expectation of the service received is related to decreased satisfaction. Therefore, assessing patient perspective gives them a voice, which can make public health services more responsive to people’s needs and expectations. Mohile SG et.al(2018). , provide guidance regarding the practical assessment and management of vulnerabilities in older patients undergoing chemotherapy methods. An Expert Panel was convened to develop clinical practice guideline recommendations based on a systematic review of the medical literature. Bishwalata Rajkumari et.al. (2017). , conducted a study to assess the satisfaction and associated factors among in-patients attending a tertiary care government health facility and the study concluded that although the satisfaction level of physician and nursing care domains were high management needs to improve on the comfort and cleanliness of the wards and quality of food service to bring an overall improvement in the quality of care provided and to augment patient's loyalty. Almudena Ribed et.al. (2016). , conducted a research to investigate the patient satisfaction with medical services provided in Outpatient’s Departments of a Greek Anti-Cancer Hospital in morning and afternoon clinics. The assessment of patients and identification of factors that contribute to their satisfaction highlighted the organizational and operational problems of outpatient department and assist in finding solutions to upgrade the quality of services provided. The problems that were identified leading to less patient satisfaction were the long waiting periods to get an appointment, last minute appointments, non-flexibility in making appointments and long waiting times be examined by the doctor. This article suggests that administration should increase its efforts to upgrade the quality of health care provided to oncology patients by taking all the necessary measures. Amina Delpeuch et.al(2015). , point out that clinical pharmacists are contributing to safe medication use by providing comprehensive management to patients and medical staff. The www.ijppr. humanjournals.com Citation: Babisha J. Ijppr.Human, 2019; Vol. 16 (2): 176-181. 179 aim of this study was to document and evaluate the role of clinical pharmacy services in a hematology/oncology department. A multidisciplinary approach to care has been applied in a variety of settings in clinical oncology by Qi Lin et.al.(2015), particularly among patients with stomach and colorectal cancer. Multidisciplinary care integrates various disciplines and existing resources to optimise treatment plans and improve patient’s quality of life. Michelle Beattie et.al. (2015). , suggested that improving and sustaining the quality of hospital care is an international challenge. Patient experience data can be used to target improvement and research. However, the use of patient experience data has been hindered by confusion over multiple instruments (questionnaires) with unknown psychometric testing and utility. Jamie J. Cavanaugh et.al. (2015). , conducted a study with objective to compare hospital readmission rates and interventions in a multidisciplinary team visit coordinated by a clinical pharmacist practitioner with those conducted by a physician-only team within an internal medicine hospital follow-up program. Schwartz CE et.al(2017). , highlights the advantages of integrating appraisal assessment into clinical research. The most comprehensive method for assessing appraisal, the quality of life (QOL), Appraisal Profile, includes open-ended and multiple choice questions to assess four appraisal parameters: frame of reference, sampling of experience, standards of comparison, and combinatory algorithm. Gilbert A et.al(2015). , indicates that there is increasing interest in the use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in routine practice in cancer care to measure symptoms and health related quality of life (HRQOL). PROs are designed to capture the patient's perspective of their care and treatment and complement the traditional clinical outcomes of survival and toxicity assessment. Glenn Larsson et.al. (2015). , aimed to investigate patient satisfaction with prehospital emergency care following a hip fracture by comparing two similar emergency care contexts. Patient satisfaction with prehospital emergency care following a hip fracture is an important outcome and this study highlights the fact that patients expressed a high level of satisfaction with the prehospital emergency care provided by ambulance nurses in both care contexts under study. www.ijppr. humanjournals.com Citation: Babisha J. Ijppr.Human, 2019; Vol. 16 (2): 176-181. 180 Anastasia Pini et.al. (2014). , conducted a study to assess patient satisfaction with services provided in a tertiary care hospital situated in rural Haryana. He points out that Health care quality is a global issue. The health care industry is undergoing a rapid transformation to meet the ever-increasing needs and demands of its patient population. Hospitals are shifting from viewing patients as uneducated and with little health care choice, to recognizing that the educated consumer has many service demands and health care choices available. The closest most tool for measuring consumer experiences is the occasional patient satisfaction survey. Tonio S et.al.,(2011) concludes in his study that identified key determinants that should be altered first in order to improve globa