Satisfaction with care among homeless patients: development and testing of a measure

The purpose of this study was to establish the reliability and validity of the Homeless Satisfaction With Care Scale, a measure of satisfaction with care among homeless clients; and to examine selected predictors of satisfaction with care. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted comparing an inductively developed measure of satisfaction with 2 established satisfaction measures in a sample of 168 homeless clients who used a rural or an urban clinic. The inductively developed satisfaction scale had good internal consistency reliability and was significantly related to the established measures of satisfaction, supporting its construct validity. Generally, patient characteristics were not associated with satisfaction level. However, Black clients had significantly lower satisfaction levels than White clients; satisfaction differed between the rural and urban sites. Race and clinical site explained 7% of variance in satisfaction. The inductively developed measure provides a salient and appropriate measure of satisfaction with care for future studies with the unique population of homeless.