[Assessment of a patient satisfaction scale in rehabilitation].
BACKGROUND
A new scale is presented, measuring patients' satisfaction with respect to the quality of care during stay in a rehabilitation unit. The questionnaire is self-administered and anonymous, and it includes 15 items, scored 1 to 4. The cumulative score may thus range 15-60; the higher the score, the higher the patient's satisfaction.


METHODS
The instrument was proposed to 175 disabled patients, admitted to a free-standing Centre for rehabilitation following neurological or orthopedic impairments.


RESULTS
One hundred and forty questionnaires were completed. Of these, 131 could be analyzed. The mean score was > 3 in every item. Factor analysis disclosed that the questionnaire comprises 5 factors, which may be defined as "medical care", "physiotherapy", "nursing care", "food" and "physical environment and facilities". A satisfactory internal consistency of the items was found (item-remainder correlations > 0.5, Cronbach alpha > 0.9). This suggests that the scale is sufficiently unidimensional to permit cumulative summing of the item scores.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest the content and construct validity of the scale. The questionnaire thus merits further psychometric investigation.
Franchignoni
F
F
Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, Clinica del Lavoro e della Riabilitazione, Centro Medico di Riabilitazione, Genova Nervi.
Benevolo
E
E
Ottonello
M
M
Tesio
L
L
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires