Psychometric Validation of Patient Satisfaction Assessment Tool for Alternative Medicine Healthcare Facility in India

Good health status has traditionally been linked to greater levels of patient satisfaction. With the emergence and integration of various medical modalities, including Homeopathy, Ayurveda, and other complementary and alternative medical treatments, patients are likely to have different satisfaction levels during their interaction with different practitioners. Amidst this diversity, the efficacy, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness of these treatment approaches have garnered significant attention. Hence, a tool was developed to assess the patient's interaction with Complementary and Alternative Medicine treatments specifically Homeopathy. The objective of this study is to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Patient Satisfaction Assessment Tool (PSAT) developed to assess patient interaction with homeopathic outreach services.

A new structured questionnaire was developed using a standardized procedure. After obtaining clearance from the scientific and ethics committee of the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy, data was collected from consenting participants above 18 years of age attending the Dr. D.P. Rastogi Central Research Institute for Homoeopathy, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Data was then computerized and analyzed by principal component analysis as the extraction method and orthogonal varimax as the rotation method.

A total of 285 participants were enrolled for psychometric validation, and 254 participants were included in the final analyses after exclusion. The mean (±Standard Deviation) age of participants was 37.63 (±12.9) years (range 18-79). The final 34-item questionnaire was arranged into nine domains as per rotated component matrix analysis. The overall internal consistency of the final questionnaire, as calculated by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.79, and the measure of sampling adequacy was 0.85 (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test).

Initial results from the pilot tests suggest that Patient Satisfaction Assessment Tool (PSAT) is effective in capturing key aspects of patient satisfaction, from homeopathic clinical services which can guide future quality improvement initiatives in alternative medicine healthcare facilities.