Validation of a French hospitalized patients' satisfaction questionnaire: the QSH-45

• Published in: International Journal for Quality in Health Care Vol. 21; no. 4; pp. 243 - 252
• Main Authors: Antoniotti, Stéphanie, Baumstarck-Barrau, Karine, Siméoni, Marie-Claude, Sapin, Christophe, Labarère, José, Gerbaud, Laurent, Boyer, Laurent, Colin, Cyril, François, Patrice, Auquier, Pascal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 01.08.2009; Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Subjects: [SDV.SPEE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Santé publique et épidémiologie; Adult; Aged; Female; France; Health Care; Hospital Departments; Hospitalization; Humans; inpatient satisfaction; Life Sciences; Male; MESH: Adult; MESH: Aged; MESH: Female; MESH: France; MESH: Hospital Departments; MESH: Hospitalization; MESH: Humans; MESH: Male; MESH: Middle Aged; MESH: Patient Satisfaction; MESH: Psychometrics; MESH: Quality Assurance; MESH: Quality Assurance, Health Care; MESH: Questionnaires; MESH: Reproducibility of Results; MESH: Socioeconomic Factors; Middle Aged; Patient Satisfaction; psychometric properties; Psychometrics; Quality Assurance, Health Care; questionnaire; Questionnaires; reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Santé publique et épidémiologie; Socioeconomic Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; validity; France; questionnaire; psychometric properties; validity; inpatient satisfaction; reliability
• ISSN: 1353-4505; 1464-3677; 1464-3677
• DOI: 10.1093/intqhc/mzp021

Objective To develop a generic French self-administered instrument for measuring hospitalized patients' satisfaction based on the patient's point of view: the questionnaire for satisfaction of hospitalized (QSH) patients. Design The development was supervised by a steering committee and undertaken through three standard steps. Item generation was derived from 95 face-to-face interviews, performed in hospitalized patients and in patients scheduled to be admitted. The item reduction led to a 69-item questionnaire. The validation process was based on validity, reliability and some aspects of external validity. Setting Medical, surgical and obstetrical departments (n = 187) of public hospitals (n = 11) from different French regions (n = 3). Participants Eligible patients were adult subjects hospitalized for at least 24 h. Main outcome measures QSH, sociodemographic data, hospitalization department, visual analogue scales of satisfaction. Results The final version of QSH contained 45 items describing 9 dimensions, leading to 2 composite scores (staff and structure index). The factor structure accounted for 71% of the total variance. Internal consistency was satisfactory (item-internal consistency over 0.40; Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.76 to 0.96). The scalability was satisfactory with inlier-sensitive fit (INFIT) statistics inside an acceptable range. Scores of dimensions were strongly positively correlated with visual analogue scale scores (all P < 0.001). External validity showed statistical associations between QSH scores and age or department. Participation rate was 91%. Conclusions The availability of a reliable and valid French questionnaire concerning hospitalized patients' satisfaction, exclusively generated from patients' interviews, enables patient feedback to be incorporated in a continuous quality health-care improvement strategy.