Defining and measuring patient satisfaction with medical care

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Psychometrics
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Patient satisfaction is a critical indicator of healthcare quality.
• Existing instruments may not adequately capture the multifaceted nature of patient experiences.
• A validated tool is needed for general population studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and validation of Form II of the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ).
• To establish a reliable and valid self-administered survey for assessing patient satisfaction with various aspects of medical care.

Main Methods:

• Development of 55 Likert-type items assessing attitudes toward provider skills, access, cost, and overall care.
• Scale balancing to mitigate response bias.
• Standardization of scoring rules for 18 subscales and 8 global scales.
• Item analysis and reliability/validity testing across four field tests.

Main Results:

• The PSQ Form II demonstrated satisfactory internal-consistency and test-retest reliability for group comparisons.
• Content validity was supported by alignment with literature and open-ended patient responses.
• Empirical validity testing yielded generally favorable results.

Conclusions:

• The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) Form II is a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring patient satisfaction.
• The questionnaire effectively captures key dimensions of healthcare experiences relevant to general populations.
• PSQ Form II is suitable for use in health services research and quality improvement initiatives.