Developing a quality cancer system -- the role of patient experience.

Quality cancer care is described as care that is safe, effective, patient-centred, timely, efficient, equitable and coordinated. There is evidence to suggest that not all patients experience quality cancer care and that there may be substantial variation across patient and tumour groups, treatment settings and stages of disease. For some groups, important disparities in cancer outcomes may indicate significant gaps in quality and health system performance. Understanding how patients experience their care in relation to agreed and established standards can highlight significant opportunities for improvement. As such, patient experience may be regarded as a key indicator of the quality of cancer care and the overall performance of the health system. This paper explores the relationship between patient experience and the quality of cancer care, and the opportunities this rich and veritably untapped data source provides for monitoring health system performance and targeting improvements for better cancer outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]