Long-term sick-listing, medical rehabilitation and life quality change: a patient evaluation

This evaluation of the health service at one of the hospitals of the National Insurance Board in Sweden is primarily based on the perspective of the patient. One interview group of 32 patients (I-group) made life quality ratings before-after their hospital stay. In responding to a postal questionnaire one year after discharge from hospital, another group of 93 former patients (Q-group) made parallel self-ratings. Due to prolonged sick-listing, the patients had been admitted to the hospital for rehabilitation/examination according to paragraph 2:11 in the general insurance law. The basis for their sick-listing was hereby critically reviewed. Within the framework of additional examinations (interview and structured general questions), more than 40% of the respondents stated that the hospital stay was mainly satisfying and a great majority appreciated the nursing care. However, the self-ratings showed that the patients did not ascribe any particularly great significance to the hospital stay. In the short term, it even seemed to have a certain negative impact on the life quality of the patients. No obvious positive bias seems to be built into the ratings. Thus, the assessment package applied may also work well in similar evaluative settings.