Kagalwalla Sana, Tsai Alexander K, George Manju, Waldock Anna, Davis Sydney, Jewett Patricia, Vogel Rachel I, Ganguli Ishani, Booth Christopher, Dusetzina Stacie B, Rocque Gabrielle B, Blaes Anne H, Gupta Arjun
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Paltown Development Foundation/COLONTOWN, Crownsville, MD, USA.
Oncologist. 2024 May 3;29(5):400-406. doi: 10.1093/oncolo/oyae016.
In qualitative work, patients report that seemingly short trips to clinic (eg, a supposed 10-minute blood draw) often turn into "all-day affairs." We sought to quantify the time patients with cancer spend attending ambulatory appointments.
We conducted a retrospective study of patients scheduled for oncology-related ambulatory care (eg, labs, imaging, procedures, infusions, and clinician visits) at an academic cancer center over 1 week. The primary exposure was the ambulatory service type(s) (eg, clinician visit only, labs and infusion, etc.). We used Real-Time Location System badge data to calculate clinic times and estimated round-trip travel times and parking times. We calculated and summarized clinic and total (clinic + travel + parking) times for ambulatory service types.
We included 435 patients. Across all service day type(s), the median (IQR) clinic time was 119 (78-202) minutes. The estimated median (IQR) round-trip driving distance and travel time was 34 (17-49) miles and 50 (36-68) minutes. The median (IQR) parking time was 14 (12-15) minutes. Overall, the median (IQR) total time was 197 (143-287) minutes. The median total times for specific service type(s) included: 99 minutes for lab-only, 144 minutes for clinician visit only, and 278 minutes for labs, clinician visit, and infusion.
Patients often spent several hours pursuing ambulatory cancer care on a given day. Accounting for opportunity time costs and the coordination of activities around ambulatory care, these results highlight the substantial time burdens of cancer care, and support the notion that many days with ambulatory health care contact may represent "lost days."
在定性研究中，患者报告称，看似短暂的门诊之行（例如，一次预计10分钟的采血）往往会变成“耗时一整天的事情”。我们试图量化癌症患者在门诊预约就诊时所花费的时间。
我们对某学术癌症中心一周内安排进行肿瘤相关门诊护理（例如，实验室检查、影像检查、手术、输液以及临床医生问诊）的患者进行了一项回顾性研究。主要暴露因素是门诊服务类型（例如，仅临床医生问诊、实验室检查和输液等）。我们使用实时定位系统徽章数据来计算门诊时间，并估算往返行程时间和停车时间。我们计算并总结了不同门诊服务类型的门诊时间和总时间（门诊时间 + 行程时间 + 停车时间）。
我们纳入了435名患者。在所有服务日类型中，门诊时间的中位数（四分位间距）为119（78 - 202）分钟。估算的往返驾车距离和行程时间的中位数（四分位间距）分别为34（17 - 49）英里和50（36 - 68）分钟。停车时间的中位数（四分位间距）为14（12 - 15）分钟。总体而言，总时间的中位数（四分位间距）为197（143 - 287）分钟。特定服务类型的总时间中位数包括：仅实验室检查为99分钟，仅临床医生问诊为144分钟，实验室检查、临床医生问诊和输液为278分钟。
患者在某一天进行门诊癌症护理通常要花费数小时。考虑到机会时间成本以及围绕门诊护理的活动协调，这些结果凸显了癌症护理的巨大时间负担，并支持了这样一种观点，即许多有门诊医疗接触的日子可能意味着“损失的日子”。
