Satisfaction with care among community residential care residents

Measuring satisfaction with community residential care (CRC) is growing in importance but still in its infancy. The authors conducted interviews with 176 CRC residents and their providers. Logistic regression was used to identify resident and physical characteristics, policies and services, and aggregate resident characteristics associated with satisfaction. Residents had high levels of satisfaction, demonstrating most concern with the facility being able to meet their future needs and food quality. Resident demographics and health status were associated with satisfaction. Contrary to hypotheses, facility type (adult family home and assisted living) was the only facility characteristic strongly associated with satisfaction. Possible explanations include that the relationship between satisfaction and facility characteristics is more complex than expected, as well as significant challenges in measuring satisfaction and facility characteristics. The inconsistent results of previous satisfaction studies do not provide direction for imposition of uniform standards for facility characteristics, if the goal is improved satisfaction.