title: Development and validation of a Chinese outpatient satisfaction questionnaire: evidence from 46 public general hospitals and 5151 outpatients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop and test a reliable and practical self-administrated questionnaire in Chinese to evaluate outpatient satisfaction in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  In order to ensure content validity, the 19 items of this questionnaire were generated based on literature review, interview and group discussion. Acceptability was tested by the percentage of missing item responses and the time and operability of administration. Construct validity was evaluated using principal component exploratory factor analysis and item-total correlations. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and inter-subscale correlation.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was conducted in 46 public general hospitals that report directly to the Provincial Health Department in Hunan Province, China.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 5151 outpatients were selected at random and asked to complete the questionnaire after they finished their medical procedures in the outpatient area.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The extremely low rate of missing data (0-0.04%) suggested good acceptability of the questionnaire. Factor analysis generated six dimensions, and all item-total coefficients were >0.8. Cronbach's alpha exceeded 0.7 for all dimensions, and the inter-subscale correlation coefficients were all lower than the Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the corresponding scale. According to the results, outpatients were least satisfied with waiting time (86.8%) and most satisfied with the quality of medical care (90.1%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Chinese outpatient satisfaction questionnaire has good acceptability, validity and reliability. It was effective and efficient for measuring outpatient satisfaction in a Chinese population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Xiangya Medical School, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, China.
authors.forename: H-B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, China.
authors.forename: J-B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, China.
authors.forename: J-J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, China.
authors.forename: Q-Y
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, China.
authors.forename: X-X
authors.initials: XX
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410008, China. Electronic address: 1064960669@qq.com.
authors.forename: T-B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Medical care quality; Outpatient; Questionnaire; Satisfaction