Comparing Inpatient Satisfaction Collected via a Web-Based Questionnaire Self-Completion and Through a Telephone...

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Patient Experience Measurement
• Survey Methodology

Background:

• Assessing patient satisfaction with healthcare is common.
• France uses the I-Satis questionnaire for inpatient satisfaction.
• Internet and telephone surveys for patient satisfaction have not been compared in a large multicenter trial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare Internet self-completion versus telephone interview for collecting inpatient satisfaction data.
• To evaluate participation rates, questionnaire consistency, and satisfaction scores between the two methods.

Main Methods:

• A multicenter randomized controlled trial (SENTIPAT) enrolled discharged inpatients with home internet access.
• Patients were randomized to either Internet self-completion or telephone interview for the I-Satis questionnaire.
• Analysis compared response rates, Cronbach's alpha for consistency, and mean satisfaction scores.

Main Results:

• 1680 patients were randomized; 392 (Internet) and 389 (telephone) were analyzed.
• Response rates were significantly lower for Internet (39.3%) vs. telephone (88.4%).
• Internet group showed higher internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.89 vs. 0.84) but lower mean satisfaction scores (68.9 vs. 72.1).

Conclusions:

• Internet administration resulted in a lower response rate but potentially higher quality satisfaction estimates.
• The interviewer effect in telephone surveys may influence satisfaction scores.
• Balancing response rates with data quality is crucial when choosing survey methods.