Where's My Doctor? The Impact of the Primary Oncologist's Visit with Their Hospitalized Patients

Continuity of care is a cornerstone of the patient-practitioner relationship. Previously, patient satisfaction has been related to perceived provider communication skills and competence. Our study assessed the relationship between the inpatient continuity visit (ICV), a face-to-face patient-provider interaction with the primary oncologist, and patient satisfaction.

Subjects were adult inpatients on the oncology unit at The Miriam Hospital who had an oncologist at the hospital-based cancer center. A survey, given at discharge, included a 5-point Likert scale ranging from greatly worsened to greatly improved satisfaction to assess the impact of the ICV on patient satisfaction.

Of 75 participants, 43 (57.3%) reported a visit by their outpatient oncologist. Of these, 39 (90.7%) reported that this visit either greatly or somewhat improved satisfaction with their hospital stay. Of subjects who had a single ICV, 93.7% reported either greatly or somewhat improved satisfaction compared to 88.9% who had more than one visit. Of 32 (43.3%) subjects who did not receive a visit, 15.6% reported that the lack of visit either greatly or somewhat worsened their satisfaction during their hospital stay, while 84.4% reported no impact.

Our study suggests that an ICV improves satisfaction of care in cancer patients on a hospitalist service, and a lack of ICV negatively impacted satisfaction. There was no improvement in satisfaction for multiple versus single ICVs. While the practicality of this intervention should be reassessed with the emergence of more accessible telehealth modalities, the efficacy of a single visit to improve satisfaction is informative.