Essentials for Improving Service Quality in Cancer Care

Leonard Berry, Texas A&M University
Kedar Mate, Weill Cornell Medical College

For cancer patients service delivery shortcomings compound the medical and financial burdens of living with cancer. Our research points to 6 essential components of improving service quality for cancer patients: (1) embrace team-based care in its various forms; (2) offer palliative care concurrently with curative care; (3) prepare patients’ family members for the caregiving role; (4) facilitate patients’ continuous connection with needed services; (5) broaden the geographic reach of clinical excellence; and (6) adopt payment-system reforms. These 6 components are mutually reinforcing elements toward improving the overall experience of cancer patients as they confront a life-changing, sometimes life-ending, diagnosis.

“Essentials for Improving Service Quality in Cancer Care,” Healthcare, December 20, 2016, pp. 312-316.