title: Validation of a patient satisfaction scale for primary care settings.
abstract: The objective of this study was to develop and validate an instrument pertinent for the Egyptian culture and situation suitable for use by health centres' administrators as a complementary tool for assessing the quality of outcome of care rendered. The study describes an attempt to develop and validate an instrument of patient satisfaction with primary health settings in Alexandria. A systematic randomized sample (227) of patients attending the outpatient clinics at 4 primary health centres in Alexandria were included in the study. The instrument included a section for respondents' characteristics, and the other section was a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from highly satisfied (5) to highly dissatisfied (1) was developed by adapting items from other measures of patient satisfaction in the literature. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for all scales was 0.80. Using the principal components factor analysis factor loadings for the scale items were high on seven factors. The factors were named technical care, accessibility, structure, humaneness, respect, in return for cost, and the waiting time. The study supports that the instrument is a reliable and valid measure for patient satisfaction suitable for Egyptian primary health settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Administration and Behavioural Sciences, High Institute of Public Health, University of Alexandria, Egypt.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Zaghloul
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D004534:Egypt; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires