Stakeholders’ Experiences and Perspectives Regarding Care Quality for Women With Breast Cancer

Abstract

BackgroundThe considerable growth in the number of patients with breast cancer leads to substantial pressure on healthcare services; however, the main measures that will evaluate what is important to the key stakeholders in improving the quality of breast cancer care are not well defined.ObjectiveThis study aimed to synthesize providers’ and patients’ experiences and perspectives regarding barriers and quality breast cancer care in health services.MethodsPubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched, and articles published in English up to August 2020 were screened. Two reviewers independently screened all articles. Data were obtained directly from different stakeholder groups including patients, health providers, and professionals.ResultsThe search strategy identified 21 eligible articles that met inclusion criteria and reported perspectives of 847 health providers and 24 601 patients regarding healthcare quality. Health providers and patients with breast cancer noted information needs, psychosocial support, responsibility for care, and coordination of care as important quality improvement characteristics of the healthcare system.ConclusionShifting to high-quality breast cancer care would likely be a complicated process, and there is a need for the cancer care services to consider important characteristics of quality cancer care as a care priority, that is, to be responsive.Implication for PracticeBreast cancer survivorship care programs and interventions may need to consider the barriers or common challenges to care noted in this review, especially regarding information sharing and the need for social support and care cooperation.