Cancer care from the perspective of women: results from a cross-sectional survey in Italy. [Poster]

Background Female cancer diseases, involving breast, ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancer, represent an important public health issue due to the high economic and organizational impact on Health Care Systems. A national project was carried out in order to evaluate the quality of oncology facilities (OF) placed in Italy. Methods From 2010 to 2013 a cross-sectional survey has been conducted by means of an ad hoc questionnaire sent by email to each Hospital Directions involved. The study investigated the characteristics and the extent to which these OF have implemented strategies to promote a patient-centred approach and patient-involvement in quality management. Results Three hundred two OF were contacted, of them 124 sent back the filled questionnaire (response rate of 41%). The majority of the structures are set up as public hospital under local health authorities (as the Italian acronym ASL). Results of the multivariate analysis showed that women living in Southern Italy have a four-fold increased risk of wait times for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) higher than the Italian median time, in comparison to women of Northern Italy (OR=3.80; CI95%:1.25-11.54). Moreover, the OF of the Central Italy, seem to have a lower risk to adopt an integrated care approach to meet the needs of the patients (OR = 0.26; 95%CI: 0.08-0.79). Conclusions The analysis highlights organizational difficulties and geographical differences in managing an integrated care pathway for cancer patients that could offer a best clinical care at hospital and territorial level in order to give high-quality living at every stage of their illness. It would be advisable to implement and strenghten, at local and national level, an integrated and evidence-based approach in order to reduce health disparities. Key messages Oncology Facilities have to implement strategies to promote a patient-centred approach and patient-involvement in quality management.