Evaluation of Patient Satisfaction: Radiation Therapy Services for Chinese Patients at the British Columbia Cancer Agency – Vancouver Centre

Abstract

AbstractBackground: Patient satisfaction surveys conducted in English exclude respondents who are not proficient in the English language. This makes it difficult to assess whether health care services provided are culturally appropriate. This study aims to evaluate the level of satisfaction for Chinese speaking patients who received radiation treatments at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver Centre in Canada.Patients and Methods: Chinese patients were given a translated patient satisfaction survey on a voluntary basis to complete at the end of treatment. Contingency table analysis using the Pearson chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test was performed at 5% significance level for all analyses. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate whether complete satisfaction with an aspect of care influenced overall satisfaction with services provided by the RT team.Results: The level of satisfaction in Chinese speaking patients was lower compared to English speaking patients. The results from the Chinese survey also identified the importance of treatment patients with courtesy and providing them with a pleasant wait area.Conclusions: Despite a language barrier, Chinese speaking patients still contributed to improvement initiatives at the Vancouver Centre. Efforts to ensure a culturally appropriate environment and provision of services include recruitment of staff members who reflect the cultural diversity of the community serviced, use of interpreter services or bilingual health providers for clients, use of linguistically appropriately education materials, and health care settings that is pleasant and respects the cultural diversity of the population serviced. This assessment provided a better understanding of whether services at the Vancouver Centre were culture appropriate.