Tapping patient satisfaction: a strategy for quality assessment.
Participant satisfaction is an important measure of program effectiveness. In hospitals, patient satisfaction is a measure that is compatible with quality assurance. This article focuses on the revision, implementation and analysis of a patient satisfaction questionnaire that was designed as a tool for assessing the quality of non-physician encounters in a small hospital. The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ), which contained a 30-item rating scale, was designed to collect data about admissions, nursing care and seven other hospital services. The 686 PSQs that comprised a 4-month sample of 2156 instruments (31.8%) completed in a selected year were analyzed. Results show no less than 90% of patient ratings reflecting satisfaction. In addition, open-ended responses were overwhelmingly laudatory. The content and process of this collaborative effort demonstrate compatibility between research and management when goals and purposes are clearly delineated.
D003258:Consumer Behavior; D006744:Hospital Bed Capacity, 100 to 299; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires