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How do patients receiving radiotherapy in a Dutch hospital value their time? A contingent valuation study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2015

France Portrait ,
Marjolein Bakker ,
Ben Slotman ,
Amiram Gafni  and
Bernard van den Berg
France Portrait*
Affiliation:
Department of Health Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Marjolein Bakker
Affiliation:
Department of Radiation, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ben Slotman
Affiliation:
Department of Radiation, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Amiram Gafni
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Bernard van den Berg
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
*
Correspondence to: France Portrait, Institute of Health Sciences, VU University, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: 00-31-20-5982545; E-mail: f.r.m.portrait@vu.nl
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Abstract

Aim

Cancer patients spend a lot of time receiving medical care. Our study investigates patients’ preferences regarding reducing the time involved in non-palliative radiotherapy care.

Methods

A total of 142 Dutch patients were included in our study. Using a contingent valuation survey, we measured the proportion of patients who preferred to reduce their patients’ time, splitting it into five different categories, and, for those who did, whether and how much they were willing to pay for this to happen.

Results

About 50% of the patients preferred to reduce their time waiting for admission by 1 week and their travel time by half; 20 and 62% wanted to reduce their waiting time by half and their treatment time from 20 to 5 minutes, respectively; 36% preferred to be treated 7 instead of 5 days a week; and 20% of those wishing to reduce their patients’ time were willing to pay, and their mean willingness to pay (WTP) ranged from £0·32 to £18·1 per hour’s reduction of their time.

Conclusion

Half of the patients seem to assess their patients’ time as reasonable. The other half preferred to reduce it, but only about 20% of them were willing to pay for it to happen and their mean WTP was low.

Keywords

contingent valuation methodpatients’ preferencespatients’ timeradiotherapy
Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 152 - 161
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Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

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