Cost of Cancer Care: The Patient Perspective

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Kim
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Patient Perspective ◽  
Indirect Costs ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Limited Ability ◽  
Patient Advocates ◽  
Diagnosis Of Cancer ◽  
The Cost

The diagnosis of cancer, along with subsequent related care, imposes a number of burdens on patients—physical, emotional, and financial. The financial expenses incurred extend well beyond the cost of medication, surgery, and related treatments. While these important issues warrant attention, patients also need assistance dealing with the indirect costs of cancer care, such as transportation, child care, and lost wages. There is an urgent need to improve the current inconsistent—sometimes nonexistent—methods used to inform patients about costs of cancer care as well as to provide them with appropriate assistance managing the costs and overall burden of cancer. Health care providers, patient advocates, agencies, and insurers have the responsibility and opportunity to provide leadership in this process. Most importantly, limited ability to address any of the expenses brought on by cancer should not prevent any patient from receiving necessary care.

Policy on the Development of Immunization Tracking Systems

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 97 (6) ◽  
pp. 927-927
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Tracking Systems ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Immunization Status ◽  
Immunization Rates ◽  
Specialized Hardware ◽  
Public And Private Cooperation ◽  
The Cost

The American Academy of Pediatrics in its role as advocate for children supports public and private cooperation in the development of immunization tracking systems (ITSs) insofar as they benefit children. All ITSs as they are developed: • Should prospectively articulate their goals and desired outcomes, including documenting immunization status and the mechanics of immunization, increasing rates of immunization, decreasing cost of immunization, and facilitating immunization opportunities; • Must accurately document each child's current immunization status; • Must preserve children's and their health care provider's right to confidentiality; • Should ensure that data will be available to health care providers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so that health care providers can take advantage of all opportunities to immunize; • Should ensure that data will not be used for sanctions against health care providers; • Must ensure that data input and access mechanisms enable providers to supply and access data easily, without having to purchase specialized hardware or expensive software; input and access software mechanisms need to enable all providers to supply data to and retrieve data from the ITS; • Should entitle health care providers to be reimbursed or the cost of providing data to the ITS; • Must ensure that data reflecting evidence of incomplete immunizations will not be used to deny a child access to care or eligibility for benefits by any insurance plan; • Must be studied and/or evaluated to determine their effectiveness at increasing immunization rates and decreasing costs; if such systems do not fulfill these goals, they should be eliminated; and

Adherence to treatment in psychiatry

2020 ◽  
pp. 193-204
Author(s):  
Amy Chan ◽  
Rob Horne
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Treatment Adherence ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Patient Perspective ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Adherence To Treatment ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Adherence Support

Adherence to treatment in psychiatry is pivotal for achieving and maintaining good health outcomes. Yet, despite the vast amount of research into adherence, treatment adherence remains suboptimal. There is a need for everyone to take an active role in addressing non-adherence if we are to realize the full benefits of available treatments. This chapter introduces the concept of adherence and discusses the factors influencing adherence in psychiatry. The adherence literature is then reviewed, and results from past adherence interventions summarized to explain why non-adherence occurs from an individual patient perspective. A perceptions and practicalities approach to adherence is then presented to help guide the design and delivery of patient-centred adherence support. This chapter serves as a practical guide to adherence for health care providers and others interested in supporting adherence to treatment in psychiatry.

scholarly journals Building an oncology community of practice to improve cancer care

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Fingrut ◽  
L. A. Beck ◽  
D. Lo
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Standards Of Practice ◽  
Barriers To Access ◽  
Multidisciplinary Meetings ◽  
Knowledge Of Cancer ◽  
Effective Models

Background Communities of practice (cops) have been shown to be effective models for achieving quality outcomes in health care.Objective Here, we describe the application of the cop model to the Canadian oncology context.Methods We established an oncology cop at our urban community hospital and its networks. Goals were to decrease barriers to access, foster collaboration, and improve knowledge of guidelines in cancer care. We hosted 6 in-person multidisciplinary meetings, focusing on screening, diagnosis, and management of common solid tumours. Health care providers affiliated with our hospital were invited to attend and to complete post-meeting surveys. Likert scales assessed whether cop goals were realized.Results Meetings attracted a mean of 57 attendees (range: 48–65 attendees), with a mean of 84% completing the surveys and consenting to the analysis. Attendees included family physicians (mean: 41%), specialist physicians (mean: 24%), nurses (mean: 10%), and allied health care providers (mean: 22%). Repeat attendance increased during the series, with 85% of attendees at the final meeting having attended 1 or more prior meetings. Across the series, most participants agreed or strongly agreed that the cop reduced barriers (mean: 76.0% ± 7.9%) and improved access to cancer care services (mean: 82.4% ± 8.1%) and subject matter experts (mean: 91.7% ± 4.2%); fostered teamwork (mean: 84.5% ± 6.8%) and a culture of collaboration (mean: 94.8% ± 4.2%); improved knowledge of cancer care services (mean: 93.3% ± 4.8%), standards of practice (mean: 92.3% ± 3.1%), and quality indicators (mean: 77.5% ± 6.3%); and improved cancer-related practice (mean: 88.8% ± 4.6%) and satisfaction in caring for cancer patients (mean: 82.9% ± 6.8%). Participant feedback carried a potential for bias.Conclusions We demonstrated the feasibility of oncology cops and found that participants perceived their value in reducing barriers to access, fostering collaboration, and improving knowledge of guidelines in cancer care.

scholarly journals Improving Access to Cancer Treatments: The Role of Biosimilars

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 596-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Chopra ◽  
Gilberto Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Cancer Treatment ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Cancer Therapies ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Cancer Treatments ◽  
Reference Drug ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
The Cost

Biologics play a key role in cancer treatment and are principal components of many therapeutic regimens. However, they require complex manufacturing processes, resulting in high cost and occasional shortages in supply. The cost of biologics limits accessibility of cancer treatment for many patients. Effective and affordable cancer therapies are needed globally, more so in developing countries, where health care resources can be limited. Biosimilars, which have biologic activity comparable to their corresponding reference drugs and are often more cost effective, have the potential to enhance treatment accessibility for patients and provide alternatives for decision makers (ie, prescribers, regulators, payers, policymakers, and drug developers). Impending patent expirations of several oncology biologics have opened up a vista for the development of corresponding biosimilars. Several countries have implemented abbreviated pathways for approval of biosimilars; however, challenges to their effective use persist. Some of these include designing appropriate clinical trials for assessing biosimilarity, extrapolation of indications, immunogenicity, interchangeability with the reference drug, lack of awareness and possibly acceptance among health care providers, and potential political barriers. In this review, we discuss the potential role and impact of biosimilars in oncology and the challenges related to their adoption and use. We also review the safety and efficacy of some of the widely used biosimilars in oncology and other therapeutic areas (eg, bevacizumab, darbepoetin, filgrastim, rituximab, and trastuzumab).

scholarly journals Spotlight on International Quality: COVID-19 and Its Impact on Quality Improvement in Cancer Care

2021 ◽  
pp. 1513-1521
Author(s):  
Douglas W. Blayney ◽  
Giovanni Bariani ◽  
Devika Das ◽  
Shaheenah Dawood ◽  
Michael Gnant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
The Impact

This report from ASCO's International Quality Steering Group summarizes early learnings on how the COVID-19 pandemic and its stresses have disproportionately affected cancer care delivery and its delivery systems across the world. This article shares perspectives from eight different countries, including Austria, Brazil, Ghana, Honduras, Ireland, the Philippines, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates, which provide insight to their unique issues, challenges, and barriers to quality improvement in cancer care during the pandemic. These perspectives shed light on some key recommendations applicable on a global scale and focus on access to care, importance of expanding and developing new treatments for both COVID-19 and cancer, access to telemedicine, collecting and using COVID-19 and cancer registry data, establishing measures and guidelines to further enhance quality of care, and expanding communication among governments, health care systems, and health care providers. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care and quality improvement has been and will continue to be felt across the globe, but this report aims to share these experiences and learnings and to assist ASCO's international members and our global fight against the pandemic and cancer.

scholarly journals P129: Safer transitions in the care of the elderly: identification of essential information in transitional care

CJEM ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (S1) ◽  
pp. S110-S111
Author(s):  
S. Trivedi ◽  
S. Beckett ◽  
A. Dick ◽  
R. Hartmann ◽  
C. Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Transitional Care ◽  
Transitions Of Care ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Patient Advocates

Introduction: When presenting to the Emergency Department (ED), the care of elderly patients residing in Long Term Care (LTC) can be complicated by threats to patient safety created by ineffective transitions of care. Though standardized inpatient handover tools exist, there has yet to be a universal tool adopted for transfers to the ED. In this study, we surveyed relevant stakeholders and identified what information is essential in the transitions of care for this vulnerable population. Methods: We performed a descriptive, cross sectional electronic survey that was distributed to physicians and nurses in ED and LTC settings, paramedics, and patient advocates in two Canadian cities. The survey was kept open for a one month period with weekly formal reminders sent. Questions were generated after performing a literature review which sought to assess the current landscape of transitional care in this population. These were either multiple choice or free text entry questions aimed at identifying what information is essential in transitional periods. Results: A total of 191 health care providers (HCP) and 22 patient advocates (PA) responded to the survey. Within the HCPs, 38% were paramedics, 38% worked in the ED, and 24% were in LTC. In this group, only 41% of respondents were aware of existing handover protocols. Of the proposed informational items in transitional care, 100% of the respondents within both groups indicated that items including reason for transfer and advanced care directives were essential. Other areas identified as necessary were past medical history and baseline functional status. Furthermore, the majority of PAs identified that items such as primary language, bowel and bladder incontinence and spiritual beliefs should be included. Conclusion: This survey demonstrated that there is a need for an improved handover culture to be established when caring for LTC patients in the ED. Education needs to be provided surrounding existing protocols to ensure that health care providers are aware of their existence. Furthermore, we identified what information is essential to transitional care of these patients according to HCPs and PAs. These findings will be used to generate a simple, one page handover form. The next iteration of this project will pilot this handover form in an attempt to create safer transitions to the ED in this at-risk population.

scholarly journals Women’s Cancer Care in Iran

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 107327481984843
Author(s):  
Hassan Joulaei ◽  
Nooshin Zarei
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Early Diagnosis ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Pap Smear ◽  
Screening Method ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Iranian Women ◽  
Poor Knowledge

Breast cancer (BC) and cervical cancer (CC) are the first and fifth common cancers in Iranian women. Although age-standardized incidence rate of BC and CC in Iran is low, the mortality to incidence ratio is high due to late diagnosis. Except an old and a quite comprehensive cancer registry, women’s cancer care encounter many challenges in Iran. Lack of a customized national and inclusive protocol to control cancer care along with the fragmented health system is the first and foremost cancer care challenge. Many high-risk women miss the opportunity of early diagnosis and treatment because of poor knowledge, low accessibility, or affordability to health care, stigma, and spouse negligence. Although the most effective BC screening method is mammography, it is not equally available for all Iranian women. Furthermore, the cost of BC is very high and screening is accompanied by stigmatized sociocultural beliefs. Unfortunately, while Iran has a good primary care system, low coverage of clinical breast examination and poor knowledge of women indicate that this system has not operated effective. Also due to the limited resources, the Pap smear test has not been applied to the majority of Iranian women. Despite the high basic health insurance coverage in Iran, it does not cover diagnostic test and full treatment of cancers which intensified underutilization of cancer care. In conclusion, developing a national policy and guideline for full coverage of early diagnosis of BC or CC should be prioritized. In this regard, health insurance companies should be committed to including BC and CC screening and care for their basic service packages. The second strategy could be training skillful, responsible, and motivated health-care providers. They are able to decrease the stigmatized view of doing mammography. Survivorship care including follow-up care, posttreatment issues, and psychosocial support should also be considered.

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