Measuring patient satisfaction with health care treatment using the Short Assessment of Patient Satisfaction measure delivered superior and robust satisfaction estimates

Abstract

Objectives: Reviews of patient satisfaction suggest seven dimensions, each of which should be assessed. This study reports development of a short generic patient satisfaction measure for use in routine clinical practice.

Study design and settings: Participants were randomly recruited from two Australian incontinence clinics. Participants completed a follow-up questionnaire including patient satisfaction items. Iterative Mokken and Rasch analyses derived the Short Assessment of Patient Satisfaction (SAPS) scale from the item bank.

Results: The SAPS psychometric properties illustrated the following features, namely its descriptive system covers all seven patient satisfaction dimensions, there were no misfitting items, and the scale exceeded the Loevinger H criteria for a strong unidimensional scale. The reliability of the SAPS was Cronbach α=0.86. When discriminatory function was examined, the SAPS scale was more sensitive than two other generic patient satisfaction instruments.

Conclusion: The SAPS scale is based on a firm theoretical model of patient satisfaction and its descriptive system covers the known dimensions contributing to patient satisfaction. Its internal psychometric properties exceeded standard psychometric standards, and it discriminated at least as well as other longer patient satisfaction measures. Although it needs further validation, the study results suggest that it may be useful for assessing patient satisfaction with health care.

Keywords: Assessing health care; Instrument development; Mokken analysis; Outcome measurement; Patient satisfaction; Rasch analysis.