Identifying barriers to cancer survivors sharing their survivorship care plans with their healthcare provider.

PURPOSE

To understand what factors influence whether a cancer survivor will share their survivorship care plan (SCP) with their healthcare provider (HCP).

METHODS

We used data from 3231 cancer survivors who utilized the OncoLink SCP resource between 2009 and 2016. Random forest and stepwise regression were used to identify predictors of SCP satisfaction and barriers to survivors sharing their care plans with their HCPs.

RESULTS

Eighty-seven percent of users rated their satisfaction with their SCP as good or better; however, only 70% of survivors planned to share their SCP with their HCP. The most commonly reported reason for not sharing was a feeling that their HCP would not care. Self-reported satisfaction with their SCP was strongest predictor of whether a survivor would share their SCP. Gender, cancer status, number of chemotherapies received, and who was managing their healthcare were all associated with self-reported survivor satisfaction with their SCP.

CONCLUSIONS

Survivor satisfaction with SCPs was high, but there was a disconnect in the number of satisfied survivors and the number of survivors planning to share their SCP with their HCP. To bridge this gap, additional prompts that HCPs are expecting this information should be added to the care plans.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS

One of the primary functions of survivorship care plans is to improve communication between survivor and healthcare provider. While survivors are overwhelmingly satisfied with their SCP, additional steps are necessary to get survivors to share their SCP with their HCP.