Assessment of the level of satisfaction of breast cancer patients in uruguay.

Introduction: Patient satisfaction plays an important role in maintaining health service utilisation, in the continuity of the doctor-patient relationship and in adherence to treatment. Objective: Determine the degree of satisfaction of patients treated for breast cancer (BC) in two public university centres in Uruguay and identify areas for improvement. Materials and Methods: Multicentre, cross-sectional study using the SERVQHOS questionnaire, adapted to the eld of the study of BC. Results: Atotal of 170 patients were surveyed, showing relatively high scores on items related to quality of care, with the highest median score being 3.86 (SD 0.48) for the item: information provided by the nursing staff, and the lowest being 2.76 (SD 0.45) for the item: waiting time for consultation. As for the stand-alone items: 90% were satised with the care received, 93.5% would recommend the service, 91.2% think they received the information needed on diagnosis and treatment and were able to express their doubts and complications. However, 10.6% thought that they were under the care of the service for longer than necessary and 8.8% did not know the name of their doctor. Conclusion: High scores were found for the items related to objective and subjective quality of care; however, the aspects related to waiting time need to be improved. Reducing waiting time and making the doctor's name known could improve patients' receptiveness and thus their therapeutic behaviour.