Psychosocial Interaction from the Patients Point of View – Patient Satisfaction by CPQ-BC (Cologne Patient Questionnaire – Breast Cancer) in 51 German Breast Centers

Background: The implementation of breast centers aims at improving the quality of care for breast cancer patients. Hereby the quality of psychosocial interaction from doctors and nursing staff is an essential aspect for patient satisfaction. This presentation based on empirical data shows the quality of psychosocial interaction from the point of view of patients in 51 german breast centers and if it has changed in annual comparison. Moreover, it analyses how the individual breast centers differ from each other and gives benchmarking data as well as data concerning the increasing significance attributed by patients to the assessment of quality of care and patient satisfaction.Material and Methods: Basis for the data is a retrospective survey of 10837 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients after primary surgery between 2006 and 2008 in 51 breast centers in Germany. After being inpatients, they were sent the specially developed Cologne Patient Questionnaire for Breast Cancer (CPQ-BC) which comprises key data to relevant aspects of psychosocial interaction such as support from physicians or nursing staff, doctor facilitation scale, patient information scale, patient participation in decision making, empathic provision of information, provision of information by physicians (basic and additional information), physical functioning, psychological well-being and tendency to excuse.Results: 88% of the contacted patients returned a completed questionnaire. The results of the descriptive analyses show that the quality of psychosocial interaction in the breast centers was overall evaluated very positively and that it is relatively stable in three years time. However, there are clear differences between the individual centers.Discussion: We noted that the quality of psychosocial interaction in the german breast centers already has a high standard from the patients point of view. This standard needs to be maintained and developed further. Moreover, the declared aim should be to dismantle the existing differences in quality between the centers. A specific evaluation of various structure and process features can give information on the reasons for these differences. Benchmarking data and specially developed benchmarking workshops help breast centers and their teams to improve quality of care and provide a good psychosocially supportive provider-patient interaction. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 1071.