Female, non-White oncologists get lower satisfaction scores from patients

Asian and Hispanic oncologists, as well as female oncologists treating genitourinary malignancies, receive lower patient satisfaction scores (PSS), according to a study.

“Appropriate statistical adjustments are needed for PSS among oncologists to account for race, gender, and physician subspecialization to allow for equitable professional opportunities across demographics,” the authors said.

This institutional review board exempt cross-sectional study used PSS data for outpatient oncologists within a large comprehensive cancer centre. The authors assessed patient demographics, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, geographical residence, and disease site, as well as oncologist characteristics such as gender and race/ethnicity.

Comparisons were made using PSS ≥95, while the association between patient and physician characteristics were examined using the t test and χ² test.

Between 2011 and 2020, a total of 15,849 oncology patients were identified. Majority of survey respondents were female (53.2 percent), White (93.4 percent), between 50 and 70 years of age (55.3 percent), and living in an urban setting (63.6 percent). Of the 303 oncologists included, 64.4 percent were male and 58.1 percent were White.

Asian and Hispanic oncologists received lower PSS (p=0.001 and p=0.0085, respectively) relative to their White counterparts. Subset analysis revealed that such differences were significant among patients aged >50 years, living in rural counties, and reporting White or non-Hispanic race/ethnicity, or among patients of either gender (p<0.05 for all).

In addition, those with genitourinary malignancies gave lower PSS for female oncologists (p=0.005).

“PSS have been adopted in healthcare reimbursement and faculty promotion metrics,” the authors said. “Oncology patients face a challenging prognosis, where PSS may be perceived differently.”