A novel method to evaluate quality of care from the perspective of cataract patients

To evaluate quality of care from patient's perspective following cataract surgery using a novel questionnaire and to assess validity of the survey in context with the identification of lacks in quality of care.

Assessment of quality of care in 150 patients (150 eyes) who underwent cataract surgery in an Austrian clinical setting based on a novel "Quality of Care from Patient's perspective following Cataract Surgery" (QCPCS)-questionnaire including 10 subjective, 10 objective and 7 general health care criteria. Quality of care was graded according to importance (range: 1 = not important to 4 = extremely important) and frequency of occurrence (range: 1 = never to 4 = often, 0 = not applicable). Quality-impact indices (QI-respective grading by patient/4) were assessed.

Mean performance score was 3.84 (SD = 0.42, range: 1-4). Mean QI was 0.89 for subjective, 0.90 for objective and 0.96 for general health care criteria (p = 0.29). All-over skewness and coefficient of variation were -2.65 and 5.85 respectively. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach's α = 0.75) confirming causal taxonomy of disease-specific and generic items.

A valid new method to reliably and holistically evaluate patient's satisfaction related to cataract surgery including a broad range of patient needs is presented, suitable to assess potential lacks in quality of health care in daily ophthalmological clinical practice.