Patient satisfaction with psychiatric services: The development, reliability, and validity of two patient-satisfaction questionnaires for use in inpatient and outpatient setting

Abstract

The assessment of patient satisfaction with services has become an issue of increasing interest in the evaluation of psychiatric services. However, several methodologic problems concerning study designs, sampling, reliability, and validity have been raised. A further problem in the field has been the great number of ad hoc instruments used, which has made comparisons between studies cumbersome. In Sweden a collaborative project has been performed with the aim of developing a patient-satisfaction instrument for use in routine clinical quality-of-care assessments and in psychiatric health care services research. Two versions of a patient-satisfaction questionnaire have been developed, one for use in inpatient services and one for use in community care services. In this article data on the development and use of the instruments and a summary of reliability and validity studies are given. Results from nationwide pilot studies of out-and in-patients have shown reliability coefficients of the questionnaires to be satisfactory. Content validity studies has been performed, and the results showed that dimensions of care given the highest priority by patients were well covered in the two questionnaires. The influence of yea-saying or acquiescence on ratings of satisfaction were found to be low and non-significant. Different modes of administering the instruments have been tested, resulting in lower response rates when the instrument was used as a postal questionnaire.

Key Words:

• Outcome measurers
• Patient satisfaction
• Psychiatric services research
• Quality of care