title: Relatives' perspectives on the quality of care in an Intensive Care Unit: the theoretical concept of a new tool.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the potential of a questionnaire (CQI 'R-ICU') to measure the quality of care from the perspective of relatives in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
  
  
  METHODS
  A quantitative survey study has been undertaken to explore the psychometric properties of the instrument, which was sent to 282 relatives of ICU patients from the Erasmus MC, an academic hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Factor-analyses were performed to explore the underlying theoretical structure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Survey data from 211 relatives (response rate 78%) were used for the analysis. The overall reliability of the questionnaire was sufficiently high; two of the four underlying factors, namely 'Communication' and 'Involvement', were significant predictors. Two specific aspects of care that needed the most improvement were missing information about meals and offering an ICU diary. There is a significant difference in mean communication with nurses among the four wards in Erasmus MC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The CQI 'R-ICU' seems to be a valid, reliable and usable instrument. The theoretical fundament appears to be related to communication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The newly developed instrument can be used to provide feedback to health care professionals and policy makers in order to evaluate quality improvement projects with regard to relatives in the ICU.
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care Unit, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, University Medical Center, The Netherlands. Electronic address: m.vanmol@erasmusmc.nl.
authors.forename: Margo M C
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: van Mol
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Open University of the Netherlands, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Esther C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Bakker
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Open University of the Netherlands, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marjan D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Nijkamp
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care Unit, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, University Medical Center, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Erwin J O
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Kompanje
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care Unit, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, University Medical Center, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bakker
authors.affiliation: HAN University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lisbeth
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Verharen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003142:Communication; D003422:Critical Care; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: CQI; Consumer Quality Index; Critical care; Family support; Health care surveys; Intensive Care Unit; Quality assessment; Quality of care; Relatives; Satisfaction; communication