Abstract
Background
Female cancer diseases, involving breast, ovarian, endometrial
and cervical cancer, represent an important public health issue
due to the high economic and organizational impact on Health
Care Systems. A national project was carried out in order to
evaluate the quality of oncology facilities (OF) placed in Italy.
Methods
From 2010 to 2013 a cross-sectional survey has been
conducted by means of an ad hoc questionnaire sent by email
to each Hospital Directions involved. The study
investigated the characteristics and the extent to which these
OF have implemented strategies to promote a patient-centred
approach and patient-involvement in quality management.
Results
Three hundred two OF were contacted, of them 124 sent back
the filled questionnaire (response rate of 41%). The majority of
the structures are set up as public hospital under local health
authorities (as the Italian acronym ASL). Results of the
multivariate analysis showed that women living in Southern
Italy have a four-fold increased risk of wait times for magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) higher than the Italian median time,
in comparison to women of Northern Italy (OR=3.80;
CI95%:1.25-11.54). Moreover, the OF of the Central Italy,
seem to have a lower risk to adopt an integrated care approach
to meet the needs of the patients (OR = 0.26; 95%CI: 0.08-0.79).
Conclusions
The analysis highlights organizational difficulties and geographical
differences in managing an integrated care pathway for
cancer patients that could offer a best clinical care at hospital
and territorial level in order to give high-quality living at every
stage of their illness. It would be advisable to implement and
strenghten, at local and national level, an integrated and
evidence-based approach in order to reduce health disparities.
Key messages
Oncology Facilities have to implement strategies to promote
a patient-centred approach and patient-involvement in
quality management.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 188-188 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | European Journal of Public Health |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| Event | 7th European Public Health Conference “Mind the gap: Reducing inequalities in health and health care” - Glasgow Duration: 19 Nov 2014 → 22 Nov 2014 |
Keywords
- Cancer Care
- Women
