Selecting predictors of cancer patients' overall perceptions of the quality of care received

Background: The goal of this study was to identify aspects of care (predictors) that can most easily be modified to produce an improvement in the score of patients' overall evaluations of the quality of care received. Patients and methods: Our sample consisted of 2247 cancer patients hospitalized in Ontario acute care hospitals in 1999/2000. We sought predictors of patients' overall perceptions of the quality of care by applying a methodology that minimizes the improvement of the predictors while gaining a desired increase in the score of the dependent variable. This approach tends to ignore items that rate relatively high and focuses on those for which hospitals can more easily modify the score. Two main subgroups were analyzed in this study: patients with malignant and benign neoplasms. Results: 'Skills of nursing staff', 'courtesy of nursing staff', 'courtesy of people who drew blood' and 'cleanliness of hospital in general' were consistently selected by our approach in both cancer groups. Conclusions: This study identifies an efficient approach to improving the score of patients' overall perceptions of the quality of care received. By focusing on these aspects of care, hospitals may be able to improve the allocation of scarce resources when planning patient satisfaction improvement initiatives.