ABSTRACT
Service quality assessments are dominated by simple analysis of questionnaire data. Such methods generally lack validity and reliability. Moreover, they do not have a target side defining what actions patient satisfaction should lead to from a management point of view. The quality, satisfaction, performance method, a technique with high validity, was applied in an internal medicine setting. The method appears to offer a unique way to relate desired results of care to different processes and structures in the clinic as well as incentives to intervene to improve the quality of care.
Subject(s)
Health Care Surveys/methods , Internal Medicine/standards , Patient Satisfaction/statistics & numerical data , Quality Assurance, Health Care , Chest Pain/therapy , Diabetes Mellitus/therapy , Humans , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and Questionnaires , United StatesABSTRACT
The use of patient questionnaires has increased widely in recent years. Their purpose, to incorporate patient perspectives into the orientation and design of health care, is, of course, commendable. However, the survey methods themselves have been less adequate, both in terms of validity and reliability, and with respect to the potential for using the results to improve the quality of health care. Presents a pilot study at three departments of ophthalmology in Sweden, involving a new method which meets reasonable demands for validity and reliability, and is explicitly change-oriented.
