Exploring the perspectives of patients about their care experience: identifying what patients perceive are important qualities in cancer care.

Introduction: Delivering person-centered care begins with understanding perspectives of individuals who are recipients of care about their experiences and what constitutes a "positive" experience.

Methods: This project explored views of individuals with cancer regarding their care experiences and identified aspects of care patients thought were important through a qualitative analysis of data from the Ambulatory Oncology Patient Satisfaction Survey (AOPSS). Permission was obtained from seven Canadian provinces to access de-identified written comments to a final open-ended question on the survey: Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your cancer care experience? The descriptive qualitative analysis was guided by two questions: (1) what is the nature of the written comments and (2) what are key ideas expressed about care experiences? Key ideas were collated across provinces to identify significant themes within the national sample.