Identifying quality indicators for home care services: a modified Delphi and Analytic Hierarchy Process study.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Experience Research
• Service Quality Assessment

Background:

• Patients receiving home care services have the most direct experience of service quality.
• Limited understanding exists regarding quality indicators for home care from a patient's viewpoint.
• This research addresses the gap in knowledge concerning patient-centric home care quality metrics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify quality indicators for home care services.
• To utilize the Service Quality model as a framework for identifying these indicators.
• To determine the relative importance (weights) of identified home care quality indicators.

Main Methods:

• A two-round Delphi survey was employed with national experts.
• Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) consultation was used to determine indicator weights.
• Consensus was established at 80% agreement on indicator importance.

Main Results:

• High response rates of 95.0% and 97.4% were achieved in the Delphi survey.
• Five first-level (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy) and 23 second-level indicators were identified.
• Weight coefficients for first-level indicators ranged from 0.110-0.298, and for second-level indicators, from 0.019-0.088.

Conclusions:

• Key quality indicators for home care services, grounded in the Service Quality model, have been successfully identified.
• These validated indicators provide a framework for evaluating home care service quality from the patient's perspective.
• The findings can guide prioritization and enhance the overall quality of home care delivery.