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De kwaliteit van de radiotherapeutische zorg in Nederland: ervaringen van patiënten.

Zuizewind, C., Hendriks, M., Ploegmakers, M., Triest, B. van. De kwaliteit van de radiotherapeutische zorg in Nederland: ervaringen van patiënten. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Oncologie: 2017, 14(1), p. 14-23.
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Introduction
Patients are experts when it comes to evaluating the process of care. Their experiences, needs and priorities can be a valuable source of information for clinics providing radiation therapy and for quality policy for radiation therapy in general.
This article answers the following questions:
1) how do patients experience the radiotherapy care in the Netherlands?,
2) does the perceived quality of radiotherapy care differ depending on patient characteristics or between clinics?
3) which of the quality aspects of radiotherapy care are, according to patients, most in need of improvement?

Method
Patients from 17 clinics providing radiation therapy in the Netherlands completed the CQ-index Radiotherapy. This concerns two questionnaires: one about patients’ experiences with radiotherapy care and one about how important they find several quality aspects.

Results
A total of 1960 patients completed the questionnaire about experiences (response rate = 69.5%). The average overall score that patients gave to the radiotherapy care was 9.1 (scale 0-10). Patients had very positive experiences with all quality aspects, but were slightly less positive about information and communication, and the completion of treatment and aftercare. Patients' experiences differed depending on the number of radiation sessions, aim of the treatment (curative versus palliative care) and between radiotherapy clinics. However, these differences were small.

Discussion
The quality of radiotherapy care, as seen through the patients’ eyes, is good to very good. This study provides insight into patients’ experiences with radiotherapy care in the Netherlands and provides indications for quality improvement and can help formulate quality policy. (aut. ref.)