[Dice score, patient satisfaction and drug addicts in the waiting rooms of health centres].
BACKGROUND
I intended to develop a simple method in order to measure patient satisfaction in general practice. The method was tested through a patient satisfaction survey in four health centres. Special attention was given to the impact of drug addicts in the waiting room environment.


METHODS
A simple questionnaire was developed. Patients were invited to state their degree of satisfaction by making a circle around pictures of a dice (numbers ranging from one to six) and also encouraged to make additional comments. The questionnaire was given to all patients visiting four health centres in our region. The survey was stopped when 200 patients in each centre had responded.


RESULTS
Telephone accessibility and waiting time for appointment scored lower than the other variables. There were significantly more complaints about discomfort in the waiting room from the centre with the largest number of drug addicts on its patient lists. Total satisfaction was high, and there was no difference between the four centres.


CONCLUSIONS
My results correspond closely with more extensive surveys, which indicate that this questionnaire is well suited for this kind of simple assessment of patient satisfaction. The comments in free text also gave valuable qualitative information.
Haarr
Dagfinn
D
Sentrum legesenter, Henrik Wergelands gate 4, 4612 Kristiansand. dagfinn.haarr@sentrum-legesenter.no
D000328:Adult; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000592:standards; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone; D014850:Waiting Lists