Most cancer patients and their relatives would prefer using an online booking system for outpatient CT exams, according to new survey data published Saturday.
Radiology departments are constantly looking for ways to improve the consumer experience, with scheduling one area ripe for change. In Denmark, oncology patients are typically assigned an appointment via a secure online mail system and can change the time over the telephone. Researchers sought to explore their openness to receiving more control in the process, publishing their results Oct. 23 in Radiography.
About 54% of patients polled said they’d likely use a web-based system for booking CT scans while 65% of their relatives said the same.
“An online system for booking CT examinations might improve patient satisfaction and the overall experience when attending a CT examination,” Kasper Kruuse-Jensen, with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology at Copenhagen University Hospital, and colleagues concluded. “Future studies could investigate the implementation of such a system in radiological clinics and how it benefits patients and relatives.”
Researchers conducted their online survey in November 2018, sending the questionnaire to the Danish Cancer Society’s user panel of past and present patients. Altogether, 555 patients and 115 family members were included in the analysis. Of those, 49% of patients and 60% of relatives found it important at least “to some degree” that CT appointments also suited family members. Meanwhile, just 37% of patients expressed interest in booking a specific radiographer for their exam compared to 56% of relatives. About 48% and 58%, respectively, said they’d like to see the same radiographer on subsequent scans.
“Seeing a familiar face could be reassuring when undergoing a CT examination, where the radiographer knows about the patient's health condition and experiences,” Kruuse-Jensen and colleagues noted. “Very few patients stated that they would have liked their key worker to change as they moved along the care process.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.