A short questionnaire for measuring the quality of patient visits to family practices.
OBJECTIVE
To describe a short questionnaire for measuring the quality of patient visits to family physician practices, and to assess the questionnaire's validity and reliability.


METHODS
Multi-stage research was carried out in three phases: Phase I--qualitative research based on 36 in-depth interviews; Phase II--quantitative research using a questionnaire to survey 360 respondents; and Phase III--quantitative research using a shortened version of the questionnaire to survey 1330 respondents. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured by using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.


METHODS
Family physician practices in Poland.


METHODS
Adult patients of family physicians.


METHODS
None.


METHODS
The patient-doctor relationship and primary health care availability.


RESULTS
A final questionnaire was produced with 16 items in three components: (1) patient-doctor relationship and consultation outcome; (2) barriers and difficulties; and (3) accessibility of care. For each component, the Cronbach's alpha values were 0.92, 0.82 and 0.64, respectively. The overall reliability for all 16 items was 0.92.


CONCLUSIONS
The Quality of Visit to Family Physician questionnaire is a reliable tool that can be used by family physicians to obtain feedback from patients about patient-doctor relationships and visit outcomes, barriers and difficulties experienced by patients in seeking family physician care, and the availability of care.
Marcinowicz
Ludmila
L
Department of Family Medicine and Community Nursing, Medical University of Bialystok, Mieszka I 4 B, 15054 Bialystok, Poland. ludmila.marcinowicz@umwb.edu.pl
Rybaczuk
Mikolaj
M
Grebowski
Ryszard
R
Chlabicz
Slawomir
S
D000328:Adult; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011044:Poland; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires