The Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) is part of the GenesisCare oncology governance structure. The Committee consists of patients who have experienced cancer and its treatments as well as carers who provide a unique perspective having cared for someone experiencing cancer. The Committee offer advice and aim to help make a contribution as partners in the delivery of our services.

The CAC have established six strategic priorities that GenesisCare are actively working towards. For an update on our progress against these goals, please click here.

Six strategic priorities

1. Consumer choice: reinforce to potential patients that they have the right to make choices.

2. Communication training: highlight the importance of ongoing softskills training programs with a particular emphasis on the importance and impact of communication on the patient experience.

3. Information availability: ensure accurate, reliable and consistent information is available to all consumers so they can make informed decisions about treatment

4. Allied health support: advocate for support services designed to facilitate holistic care for consumers.

5. Involve the support Person: encourage the participation of carers in all phases of treatment.

6. Aftercare: promote the provision of a holistic aftercare mentoring program to help bridge the ‘what next’ gap and help reduce feelings of vulnerability upon finishing treatment.

The Consumer Representative Panel was established so that we can seamlessly involve consumers in proposed projects and initiatives. Panel members bring different skillsets, perspective and background to ensure we capture a diverse spectrum of opinions. Each member completes GenesisCare induction and consumer representative training (online module) to ensure they are supported for consumer participation. Our aim is to collect and measure patient preferences both at a strategic and operational level.

Projects that involve patients

• Reviews of patient information
• Design of the GenesisCare website
• Reviews of safety and quality data
• Creation of digital content e.g. patient stories
• Patient lead training e.g. “A patient perspective of RT’ video
• Patients speak at key events e.g. opens of new sites
• Input into site refurbishments and new designs
• Reviews of position description e.g. the role of the nurse
• Evaluation and review of patient feedback
• Contribution to the PX strategy design e.g. co-design events

Our learnings

Brochures: We provide patient information brochures that are easy to read and understand. These are accessible in all centres and we are working towards having these accessible online.
Website: We created an easy to read and use website, where resources and information are available and easy to find.
Quality information: We developed safety and quality information that is displayed to patients on waiting room slides in centres, and detailed information on our website.
Patient stories: We created patient stories to give patients a voice and enable our internal team to better understand the patient perspective and treatment techniques to help achieve better patient outcomes.
Patient-led training: We worked closely with a patient who experienced Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) radiation therapy, and produced a video to educate our internal team about the patient perspective about this treatment technique.

This is a unique opportunity to learn about patients directly and explore their perspectives, values and challenges. Patients join for a formal panel session where the entire organisation is invited to listen and learn.

Key insights from patient panels include:

• What it’s like to receive a cancer diagnosis
• The complex care pathways they will often navigate
• The gaps in the current system
• The psychological and financial challenges they face
• An overview of opportunities that could meet these needs
• Awareness of how we can work with patients to provide integrated care to improve their experience

Patient focus groups provide insightful feedback about a patient’s experience of cancer and our service. This feedback helps us identify opportunities to improve our service and the overall patient experience.

We co-design our service with patients and carers using focus groups. When possible, we conduct focus groups in person however to provide flexibility and convenience we also conduct focus groups virtually (via Zoom).

During COVID-19, using Zoom to host focus groups gave us access to patient insights to continue making local improvements whilst keeping patients and teams safe. It also presents an opportunity to conduct state-wide focus groups where patients from all centres can contribute.

Every month we ask patients to complete a survey to help us understand how we can improve our service. We aim for a 50% response rate and a +90 Net Promotor Score (NPS). The purpose of our patient satisfaction survey is to facilitate consumer feedback that teams can act on locally.

Our Net Promotor Score (NPS) for oncology patients

Our patient satisfaction rating of +90 NPS places GenesisCare in the top 5% of outpatient oncology facilities globally.* While our patient satisfaction rating of +90 NPS places us in the top 8 highest scoring outpatient oncology providers within Australia.*

NPS methodology

Net Promoter Score or NPS® is an internationally recognised methodology based on extensive research. NPS measures what percentage of patients would recommend or promote our service to their family or friends.

Our NPS score is measured on the very first question of our patient satisfaction survey – “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or relative requiring treatment?”

NPS is based on the notion that respondents can be divided into three categories: Promoters (9 &10), Passives (7 & 8), and Detractors (6 to 0). To calculate our NPS, we take the percentage of patients who are “Promoters” and subtract the percentage who are “Detractors”, ignoring those who are “Passives”.

To find out more about our NPS, click here.

*Based on the Press Ganey international outpatient oncology database, benchmarking period of 2016–2019.

This analysis was conducted using GenesisCare’s 2019 Net Promoter Score (NPS), compared to Press Ganey international and Australian outpatient oncology databases, benchmarking period of 2016–2019. In calculating our Australian ranking, participating oncology facilities with too few responses were excluded (n=< 30 responses).Data was collected via a self-administered Patient Satisfaction survey, submitted on an iPad by the patient prior to leaving the centre.

We aim to better understand what people are searching online regarding their health and healthcare providers. We analyse the information people are searching to bring to light key trends that will help us deliver personalised and informative information online so that customer expectations are met. By homing in on digital search trends we are better placed to provide a positive digital experience for our customers.