Satisfaction with in-person and teleconsultationoutpatient care in breast cancer patients at aPeruvian cancer center

Introduction: Teleconsultation involves the remote provision of healthservices by healthcare professionals using information and communicationtechnologies. Objective: The objective of our study is to assess the satisfactionwith in-person and teleconsultation outpatient care among breast cancerpatients at a private Peruvian cancer center. Materials and methods: Ananalytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 167 breast cancer patientsduring the Peruvian state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Twoinstruments were applied: one for user satisfaction with in-person outpatientcare and another for teleconsultation care. The SERVQUAL instrument wasadapted for each type of care. An Aiken's V coefficient and a Cronbach's alphacoefficient of 0.9 and 0.943 were obtained as validity and reliability measuresfor the instrument for both modes of care, respectively. A Google Formsdocument was sent via WhatsApp. The evaluation of the difference betweenthe two modes of care was performed using the McNemar test. Results: Atotal of 167 patients were included. Most patients were female (89.22%) andaged between 45 and 59 years (55%). The main reason for consultation wasto receive active systemic therapy (32.3%), and the most consulted specialtywas medical oncology (82.4%). A total of 65.87% (n=110) of patients consideredin-person care unsatisfactory, while 48.50% (n=81) considered teleconsultationcare unsatisfactory (p<0.05). Conclusion: Both modes of care predominantlyreceived unsatisfactory ratings. Despite this, patients reported higher satisfactionwith teleconsultation outpatient care compared to in-person outpatient care.