Last update:
21-Jan-2019

OBJECTIVE Development and validity testing of a questionnaire designed to record patient satisfaction with primary health care (PHC) services.

METHOD The study was conducted in 7 public hospitals in Attica, with a sample of 454 patients, users of the services, selected by stratified random sampling. A questionnaire on patient satisfaction was designed based on the international bibliography and following the hierarchical satisfaction model, consisting of 32 closed questions to be answered on a 5-point Likert scale. The participants completed the questionnaire and the resultant data were evaluated using confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, and reliability analysis with Cronbach's alpha, and the Pearson correlation coefficient.

RESULTS The confirmatory analysis demonstrated a very good fit of the model. The factor analysis revealed four key factors: Satisfaction with medical care, satisfaction with nursing care, satisfaction with the administrative services and satisfaction with the outpatient facilities. The reliability processes indicated a reliability of the questionnaire of 0.964, and of the four factors listed above, in the range of 0.962–0.926. All the factors demonstrated a moderately positive linear correlation with each other. The participants appeared to have moderate or good perceptions of the PHC services of the hospitals in the study. The highest satisfaction score was for medical care (3.82) and the lowest was for the administrative services (3.27).

CONCLUSIONS The testing of the patient satisfaction questionnaire indicated that it is valid and reliable. It appears to be a promising tool for measuring the perceived satisfaction of patients with PHC services in Greece. This tool can be used by healthcare professionals in the PHC setting to gather information in order to improve care provision and maximize the efficacy of clinic unit management.

Key words: Development, Patient satisfaction, Primary health care, Questionnaire, Validity.