A Study on the Medical Services Satisfaction of Cancer Patients in Busan Area

Abstract Hospital out-shopping by local patients has become more popular. In particular, many cancer patients have visited hospitals in the capital area to get better medical services regardless of how far the hospitals are from their home. However this kind of hospital out-shopping may discontinue medical treatment and cause a waste of medical resources including manpower. In addition, it creates additional economic and social expenses such as caretakers’ transportation and lodging expenses. It is necessary to study patients who would take the medical treatment in Busan go to Seoul for better medical services are more satisfied based on objective data. For this, a questionnaire survey has been performed against 223 cancer patients who had a surgery in Busan and 187 patents who had an operation in Seoul. According to the survey, the patients who had an operation in the capital area(Group A) were more satisfied than the patients who had a surgery in Busan(Group B) in terms of convenience facilities, doctors’ competence. However the Group A was very dissatisfied in terms of accessibility and satisfaction on overall medical services.