Patient Satisfaction and Supportive Care Pathways in a German Head and Neck Tumor Center: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study

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Background/Objectives: Patient satisfaction and supportive care are key quality indicators in certified Head and Neck Cancer Centers (HNCC). We assessed patient-reported experiences across diagnostic staging and surgical treatment pathways, focusing on discharge management and supportive service integration. Materials and Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study, 84 inpatients were surveyed at the time of hospital discharge after diagnostic tumor staging (n = 45) or surgical treatment (n = 39) at a German tertiary HNCC. Phase-specific standardized questionnaires with five-point Likert scales were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests. Associations of sex and treatment intensity with satisfaction and supportive care utilization were explored descriptively and in an exploratory manner. Results: Overall ratings were high across both cohorts for admission processes, inpatient organization and medical and nursing care, with no statistically significant between-group differences (p > 0.05). Information regarding diagnostic and perioperative procedures was rated very positively in both groups. Discharge-related items were generally favorable. However, patients who underwent surgery reported greater uncertainty and lower reported utilization of formal discharge management. This difference did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.0559) and should therefore be interpreted as a non-significant trend toward less positive evaluation compared with diagnostic patients. Supportive services were rated predominantly good to very good by users (>95% positive ratings). Utilization differed by treatment intensity: Speech therapy was more frequent in operative patients (p < 0.001) and social work counseling was offered and utilized more often in patients undergoing extensive surgery (p = 0.042 and p = 0.027, respectively). Overall dissatisfaction was strongly associated with perceived deficiencies in information on diagnostic procedures and tumor-related counseling (both p < 0.001), whereas waiting time for surgery was not associated with negative overall ratings. Conclusions: Patient satisfaction was consistently high across diagnostic and surgical pathways. Adequate, transparent and repeated information, particularly on diagnostics and tumor counseling, was strongly associated with higher overall satisfaction, whereas objective timing metrics were not associated with negative ratings. Discharge management may represent a sensitive transition point, particularly after extensive surgery and may therefore be a relevant target for further optimization and proactive integration of supportive care services. Sex-specific findings were limited and should be interpreted cautiously due to small subgroup sizes.

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