Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2011 Mar;22(3):723-729.
doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdq417. Epub 2010 Aug 17.

Evaluation of the SCA instrument for measuring patient satisfaction with cancer care administered via paper or via the Internet

N Kamo  1 , S V Dandapani  1 , R A Miksad  2 , M J Houlihan  3 , I Kaplan  4 , M Regan  5 , T K Greenfield  6 , M G Sanda  7
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Evaluation of the SCA instrument for measuring patient satisfaction with cancer care administered via paper or via the Internet

N Kamo et al. Ann Oncol. 2011 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Patients' perspectives provide valuable information on quality of care. This study evaluates the feasibility and validity of Internet administration of Service Satisfaction Scale for Cancer Care (SCA) to assess patient satisfaction with outcome, practitioner manner/skill, information, and waiting/access.

Patients and methods: Primary data collected from November 2007 to April 2008. Patients receiving cancer care within 1 year were recruited from oncology, surgery, and radiation clinics at a tertiary care hospital. An Internet-based version of the 16-item SCA was developed. Participants were randomised to Internet SCA followed by paper SCA 2 weeks later or vice versa. Seven-point Likert scale responses were converted to a 0-100 scale (minimum-maximum satisfaction). Response distribution, Cronbach's alpha, and test-retest correlations were calculated.

Results: Among 122 consenting participants, 78 responded to initial SCA. Mean satisfaction scores for paper/Internet were 91/90 (outcome), 95/94 (practitioner manner/skill), 89/90 (information), and 86/86 (waiting/access). Response rate and item missingness were similar for Internet and paper. Except for practitioner manner/skill, test-retest correlations were robust r = 0.77 (outcome), 0.74 (information), and 0.75 (waiting/access) (all P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Internet SCA administration is a feasible and a valid measurement of cancer care satisfaction for a wide range of cancer diagnoses, treatment modalities, and clinic settings.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Participant enrolment flowchart. *One participant with mutually exclusive responses to all items on the paper and Internet surveys was considered noninformative and was excluded from all analysis.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Comparison of paper (P) versus Internet (I) surveys (all participants)—lower boundary of the box represents 25th percentile—line within the box represents median—upper boundary of the box represents 75th percentile—whiskers above and below the box represent 90th and 10th percentiles, respectively—points represent outliers.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ayanian JZ, Zaslavsky AM, Guadagnoli E, et al. Patients' perceptions of quality of care for colorectal cancer by race, ethnicity, and language. J Clin Oncol. 2005;23(27):6576–6586. - PubMed
    1. Sanda MG, Dunn RL, Michalski J, et al. Quality of life and satisfaction with outcome among prostate-cancer survivors. N Engl J Med. 2008;358(12):1250–1261. - PubMed
    1. Hewitt ME, Simone JV. National Cancer Policy Board. Ensuring Quality Cancer Care. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1999.
    1. Bickell NA, LePar F, Wang JJ, Leventhal H. Lost opportunities: physicians' reasons and disparities in breast cancer treatment. J Clin Oncol. 2007;25(18):2516–2521. - PubMed
    1. Institute of Medicine (U.S.) Division of Health Care Services, Lohr KN, Institute of Medicine. Committee to Design a Strategy for Quality Review and Assurance in Medicare. United States. Health Care Financing Administration. Medicare: A Strategy for Quality Assurance. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1990.

Publication types