Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Advanced lung cancer patients’ experience with continuity of care and supportive care needs

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Supportive Care in Cancer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

As cancer care becomes increasingly complex, the ability to coordinate this care is more difficult for health care providers, patients and their caregivers alike. Despite the widely recognized need for improving continuity and coordination of care, the relationship of continuity of care with patient outcomes has yet to be elucidated. Our study’s main finding is that the Continuity and Coordination subscale of the widely used Picker System of Ambulatory Cancer Care Survey is able to distinguish between lung cancer patients with unmet supportive care needs and those without. Specifically, this study shows a new association between this widely implemented continuity and coordination survey and the ‘psychological needs’ domain, as well as the ‘health system and information’ domains of supportive care needs. The finding provides support for the idea that interventions to improve continuity may impact tangible indicators of patient care such as supportive care needs being met. The study focuses attention on continuity of care as an important aspect of optimizing outcomes in cancer care.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Brazil K, Whelan T, O’Brien MA, Sussman J, Pyette N, Bainbridge D (2004) Towards improving the co-ordination of supportive cancer care services in the community. Health Policy 70:125–131

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Sullivan T (2003) Cancer Quality Council of Ontario. Strengthening the Quality of Cancer Services in Ontario. CHA Press, Ottawa

  3. Lohfeld L, Brazil K, Willison K (2007) Continuity of care for advanced cancer patients: comparing the views of spousal caregivers in Ontario, Canada, to Dumont et al.’s theoretical model. J Palliat Care 23:117–126

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Rogers MS, Barclay SI, Todd CJ (1998) Developing the Cambridge palliative audit schedule (CAMPAS): a palliative care audit for primary health care teams. Br J Gen Pract 48:1224–1227

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Shortell SM (1976) Continuity of medical care: conceptualization and measurement. Med Care 14:377–391

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Snyder CF, Dy SM, Hendricks DE, Brahmer JR, Carducci MA, Wolff AC, Wu AW (2007) Asking the right questions: investigating needs assessments and health-related quality-of-life questionnaires for use in oncology clinical practice. Support Care Cancer 15:1075–1085

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Turgeon J, Dumont S, St-Pierre M, Sevigny A, Vezina L (2006) Continuity of cancer care in Quebec: beyond the symptoms. Can Fam Physician 52:1572–1573

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Committee on Quality Health Care In America, Institute of Medicine (2001) Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century. National Academy Press, Washington, DC

  9. Haggerty JL, Reid RJ, Freeman GK, Starfield BH, Adair CE, McKendry R (2003) Continuity of care: a multidisciplinary review. BMJ 327:1219–1221

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Coleman EA, Eilertsen TB, Magid DJ, Conner DA, Beck A, Kramer AM (2002) The association between care co-ordination and emergency department use in older managed care enrollees. Int J Integr Care 2:e03

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Donaldson MS (2001) Continuity of care: a reconceptualization. Med Care Res Rev 58:255–290

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Dumont I, Dumont S, Turgeon J (2005) Continuity of care for advanced cancer patients. J Palliat Care 21:49–56

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Saultz JW, Lochner J (2005) Interpersonal continuity of care and care outcomes: a critical review. Ann Fam Med 3:159–166

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Fan VS, Burman M, McDonell MB, Fihn SD (2005) Continuity of care and other determinants of patient satisfaction with primary care. J Gen Intern Med 20:226–233

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Gulliford MC, Naithani S, Morgan M (2007) Continuity of care and intermediate outcomes of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Fam Pract 24:245–251

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Nutting PA, Goodwin MA, Flocke SA, Zyzanski SJ, Stange KC (2003) Continuity of primary care: to whom does it matter and when? Ann Fam Med 1:149–155

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Sanson-Fisher R, Girgis A, Boyes A, Bonevski B, Burton L, Cook P (2000) The unmet supportive care needs of patients with cancer. Supportive Care Review Group. Cancer 88:226–237

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Canadian Cancer Society (2012) Estimated new cases and deaths for cancers by sex. Canadian Cancer Society, Toronto

  19. Li J, Girgis A (2006) Supportive care needs: are patients with lung cancer a neglected population? Psychooncology 15:509–516

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Sarhill N, Walsh D, Nelson KA, LeGrand S, Davis MP (2001) Assessment of delirium in advanced cancer: the use of the bedside confusion scale. Am J Hosp Palliat Care 18:335–341

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Bonevski B, Sanson-Fisher R, Girgis A, Burton L, Cook P, Boyes A (2000) Evaluation of an instrument to assess the needs of patients with cancer. Supportive Care Review Group. Cancer 88:217–225

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Boyes A, Newell S, Girgis A (2002) Rapid assessment of psychosocial well-being: are computers the way forward in a clinical setting? Qual Life Res 11:27–35

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Cleary PD, Edgman-Levitan S, Roberts M, Moloney TW, McMullen W, Walker JD, Delbanco TL (1991) Patients evaluate their hospital care: a national survey. Health Aff (Millwood ) 10:254–267

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Picker Institute Europe (2009) North London Cancer Network Patient Survey: Executive Summary. Picker Institute Europe, Oxford

  25. National Research Corporation, Ontario Hospital Association (2003) N.R.C.: Development and Validation of the Picker Ambulatory Oncology Survey Instrument in Canada. National Research Corporation, Lincoln, NE

  26. Safran DG, Karp M, Coltin K, Chang H, Li A, Ogren J, Rogers WH (2006) Measuring patients’ experiences with individual primary care physicians. Results of a statewide demonstration project. J Gen Intern Med 21:13–21

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Flocke SA (1997) Measuring attributes of primary care: development of a new instrument. J Fam Pract 45:64–74

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Booth L, Selby P, Lynch P, Brown J, Velikova G (2001) Measurement of continuity and co-ordination of care in a cancer centre. Qual Life Res 10:246–246 (Poster Abstract No. 212)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Flocke SA, Stange KC, Zyzanski SJ (1998) The association of attributes of primary care with the delivery of clinical preventive services. Med Care 36:AS21–AS30

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Harley C, Adams J, Booth L, Selby P, Brown J, Velikova G (2009) Patient experiences of continuity of cancer care: development of a new medical care questionnaire (MCQ) for oncology outpatients. Value Health 12:1180–1186

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Anderson F, Downing GM, Hill J, Casorso L, Lerch N (1996) Palliative performance scale (PPS): a new tool. J Palliat Care 12:5–11

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Howell D, Prestwich C, Laughlin E, Giga N (2004) Enhancing the role of case managers with specialty populations: development and evaluation of a palliative care education program. Lippincotts Case Manag 9:166–174

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Sussman J, Howell D, Whelan T, Brazil K, Pyette N, and Bainbridge D (2007) Prospective study of specialist oncology community nursing resulting in improvements in key patient supportive care outcomes. In Journal of Clinical Oncology: ASCO Annual Meeting Proceedings Part 1, 25:18 s Abstract No. 9107

  34. Burge F, Lawson B, Johnston G, Cummings I (2003) Primary care continuity and location of death for those with cancer. J Palliat Med 6:911–918

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Smith DP, Supramaniam R, King MT, Ward J, Berry M, Armstrong BK (2007) Age, health, and education determine supportive care needs of men younger than 70 years with prostate cancer. J Clin Oncol 25:2560–2566

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Fletcher RW, Fletcher SW (2005) Clinical epidemiology: the essentials. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  37. Cohen J, Cohen P, West S, Aiken L (2003) Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for behavioral sciences. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Mahwah

    Google Scholar 

  38. King M, Jones L, Richardson A, Murad S, Irving A, Aslett H, Ramsay A, Coelho H, Andreou P, Tookman A, Mason C, Nazareth I (2008) The relationship between patients’ experiences of continuity of cancer care and health outcomes: a mixed methods study. Br J Cancer 98:529–536

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Sandoval GA, Brown AD, Sullivan T, Green E (2006) Factors that influence cancer patients’ overall perceptions of the quality of care. Int J Qual Health Care 18:266–274

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Steginga SK, Occhipinti S, Dunn J, Gardiner RA, Heathcote P, Yaxley J (2001) The supportive care needs of men with prostate cancer (2000). Psychooncology 10:66–75

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to Erica Moran, Christopher Obwanga, Jacqueline Leung, Kim Tran, Katie Fong, Stanley Lee, Diane Kishi, Allison Kurahashi, the Rose and Arthur Brooks Memorial Fund and Windfields Farms Clinical Research Unit.

Funding

This research is funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (grants #19199 and 19807).

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interests. The authors have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review these data if requested.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amna Husain.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Husain, A., Barbera, L., Howell, D. et al. Advanced lung cancer patients’ experience with continuity of care and supportive care needs. Support Care Cancer 21, 1351–1358 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-012-1673-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-012-1673-7

Keywords

Navigation