[How significant are customer surveys in the rehabilitation of patients with mental illness?]

In Germany, customer surveys in the field of rehabilitation meanwhile are of high political relevance - particularly since the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German Pension Insurance) has defined customer judgements as a significant outcome parameter. Both the theoretical conceptualization and the empirical data available suggest that customer satisfaction is a construct widely dependent on subjective factors, which has only little reference to the reality of treatment. In the Herzogsägmühle Rehabilitation Centre a detailed customer survey (rehabilitants with mental illness) was carried out for the first time in 2007 in the framework of internal quality management.

Data analysis was to yield new knowledge concerning the validity of subjective patient-related outcome parameters as well as relative to the content dimensioning regarding satisfaction and quality judgments in this specific sample. A Centre-specific questionnaire was constructed taking into account existing empirical data and theoretical considerations concerning the relevant content dimensions of customer satisfaction. Forty-six mostly male rehabilitants with an average age of 25 were interviewed. The majority of the interviewees had been diagnosed as having a schizophrenic or an affective disorder. The data obtained was submitted to a predominantly explorative data analysis, also testing various hypotheses.

The results show that the rehabilitants' judgements are differentiated and that the expected positive bias was restricted to a few areas. Also it could be shown that treatment satisfaction and quality evaluations present different content dimensions. While satisfaction depends on the evaluation of treatment efficacy, the quality judgement is dependent on evaluation of the professional skills of the staff involved. CONCLUSION/CONSEQUENCES: In particular the quality judgments of the rehabilitants are important in both internal and external (by the cost carriers) quality management assurance. Both theoretical considerations and empirical findings on the subject of patient satisfaction suggest that surveys should be embedded in a comprehensive evaluation concept in the framework of effectiveness research. It is therefore projected to validate the patient judgements given at the Rehabilitation Centre on objective, treatment-related outcome parameters.