In a world where competition and patient consumerism are on the rise, cancer program leaders need to invest carefully, focusing on services that both attract new patients and retain them throughout their care.

But what factors really influence cancer patients’ choice of provider? And how do you keep patients loyal and satisfied with their care across the entirety of their journey?

To find out, we conducted the Cancer Patient Experience Survey, collecting data from more than 1,200 cancer patients and survivors across the country diagnosed within the past five years.

We won’t bury the lede. When deciding where to go for care, patients want a physician who specializes in their particular kind of cancer. As far as the most valuable service? Specialized symptom management and all of their care in one location. See what else we found below.

How we arrived at an apples-to-apples comparison

Our survey included demographic, decision-making, and MaxDiff questions.

MaxDiff analysis is a technique commonly used in market research to determine which product features matter most and least to consumers. Respondents are shown a list of factors and asked to indicate the most and least important. Respondents are asked the question multiple times, but each time they choose from a slightly different list of factors. This allows us to quantify the relative value respondents place on different factors and force respondents to choose between them.

We also collected respondents’ demographic information, including age, gender, tumor type, race, education, income, location, insurance status, and provider type. For the first time, we also asked about any comorbidities patients have. While there was fairly even distribution across most factors, there were some predictable biases. For example, the sample skewed toward younger patients and patients with breast and skin cancer. Though racial diversity increased since our 2015 survey, 84% of respondents were white.

For the complete data on our survey respondents, please download our respondent profile.

A note on the survey’s limitations: This research is attitudinal in nature, not behavioral. It did not ask respondents about their historical choices; rather, it asked them about their stated preferences and hypothetical choices.

What patients want in a provider

For the first MaxDiff question, we asked respondents to indicate which feature is most and least important to them when deciding where to go for their cancer care.

The features patients value most

We showed each respondent five features in one screen and asked the question ten times. The resulting utility scores represent the relative value of each feature. For example, respondents valued clinical quality with a score of 11.1 more than twice as much as accreditation which scored 5.5.

The resources patients use for information

How are patients researching potential providers? We also asked cancer patients what resources they referenced when choosing where to go for care. While patients still highly value their doctor's recommendation, it is clear that online resources play a significant role in patients’ search for information about where they go for care.

The services patients value most

For the second MaxDiff question, we asked respondents which service offered by a cancer center would have been most valuable and least valuable to them throughout their experience. They were shown five services in one screen and completed this question 15 times. "Specialized symptom management" narrowly came out as the top overall service, just beating out "all of my care takes place in one location," which was the top-scoring service in 2015.

We complemented these questions with others focusing on specific preferences when it comes to decision making, support services, survivorship, and more. You can access all of the results from the survey by downloading the ready to present slides.