Ability of surrogates to represent satisfaction of nursing home residents with quality of care.
OBJECTIVE
To measure the ability of surrogates to accurately represent nursing home residents' satisfaction with the nursing home care.


METHODS
Comparison by correlation analysis of questionnaire answers by nursing-home residents and their designated surrogates.


METHODS
Four non-profit community nursing homes.


METHODS
One-hundred fifty-two resident-surrogate pairs were included, based on the following criteria: (1) the resident was able to respond to questions verbally and in English, had cognitive abilities sufficient to understand the questions, and had a responsible party who had a telephone number in the medical record; (2) both the resident and the surrogate agreed to be interviewed.


METHODS
A 26-item instrument (21 specific and 5 global items) was developed to measure surrogates' perceptions of residents' satisfaction with the quality of the physician services, nursing care, and the nursing home environment. The instrument was scored on a 4-point Likert scale in which higher scores indicated greater satisfaction and paralleled a similar instrument designed for nursing home residents. Correlation of residents' with surrogates' scores on the satisfaction instruments was examined.


RESULTS
The mean score for most items was greater than 3.0, indicating overall satisfaction with the care. Correlations between surrogates and residents on specific items ranged from 0.1 to 0.55. Correlations were highest for global items and items addressing satisfaction with the environment.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that nursing home residents' surrogates cannot accurately express the residents' satisfaction with all areas of nursing home care and that their evaluations should not be taken in lieu of the residents' opinions.
Lavizzo-Mourey
R J
RJ
Section of General Internal Medicine, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, PA 19104.
Zinn
J
J
Taylor
L
L
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009735:Nursing Homes; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014789:Visitors to Patients