Developing a Patient Experience Questionnaire for the Man Van Mobile Clinical Unit

Introduction

Prostate cancer, the most common male cancer in the United Kingdom, disproportionately affects Black men and deprived communities, where early diagnosis is critical to reducing mortality. The Man Van, a mobile outreach service, targets these high-risk groups to improve access to prostate cancer testing. The Man Van was developed to address health inequalities and other barriers to healthcare that affect prostate cancer and men's health more generally. As a novel clinical model, measuring the patients' perspectives of its quality and acceptability is relevant when evaluating its effectiveness.

Methods

To facilitate evaluation of the effectiveness of the Man Van project, a novel patient questionnaire was developed using a three-stage approach: (1) identification of domains and evaluation of existing evidence, (2) discussion groups followed by a modified virtual Delphi approach to refine themes and develop questions and (3) a real-world evaluation to finalise the questionnaire. Virtual discussions and asynchronous feedback facilitated stakeholder input.

Results

Two broad areas of acceptability and quality were identified, which were synthesised into 9 domains, linked to 15 themes to measure patients' perspectives on the Man Van. The final 17-item questionnaire follows the patient journey from service awareness to discharge, with socio-demographic data sourced from the Man Van database.

Conclusions

This study produced the first evidence-based questionnaire for evaluating a mobile prostate cancer outreach service, highlighting that a well-defined service with good communication is key to establishing and maintaining quality and acceptability with patients. The tool offers a framework for evaluating and scaling similar interventions, which can be used by policymakers as a foundation for scaling up similar services.