Skip Navigation



Family Practice Advance Access published online on April 26, 2006
Family Practice, doi:10.1093/fampra/cml017
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
23/4/437    most recent
cml017v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Moll van Charante, E.
Right arrow Articles by Bindels, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Moll van Charante, E.
Right arrow Articles by Bindels, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Received July 4, 2005
Accepted March 21, 2006

Article

Patient satisfaction with large-scale out-of-hours primary health care in The Netherlands: development of a postal questionnaire

Eric Moll van Charante 1 *, Paul Giesen 2, Henk Mokkink 2, Frans Oort 1, Richard Grol 2, Niek Klazinga 1, and Patrick Bindels 1

1 Department of General Practice, Academic Medical Centre--University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 15, 1105 AZ Amsterdam
2 Centre for Quality of Care Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, WOK 229, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Eric Moll van Charante, E-mail: e.p.mollvancharante{at}amc.uva.nl


  Abstract

Background. Since the turn of the millennium, out-of-hours primary health care in The Netherlands has faced a substantial change from small locum groups towards large GP cooperatives. Improving the quality of care requires evaluation of patient satisfaction.

Objective. To develop a reliable postal questionnaire for wide-scale use by patients contacting their out-of-hours GP cooperative and to present the results of a national survey.

Methods. Literature review and interviews with both patients and health carers were carried out to identify issues of potential relevance, followed by two postal pilot studies and additional interviews to remove or rephrase items. Finally, postal questionnaires were sent to 14 400 people who contacted one of 24 GP cooperatives in The Netherlands.

Results. Overall response was 52.2% for all types of contact. Three scales were identified prior to the field phase and confirmed by principal components analysis: telephone nurse, doctor and organization. Reliability was high, with Cronbach's alphas and intraclass correlation coefficients exceeding 0.70 for all scales. Only items in the organization scale showed clear differences among the participating cooperatives. Respondents receiving telephone advice showed lower levels of satisfaction than respondents with other types of contact (P < 0.001); centre consultation scored lower than home visit (P < 0.030 or less for all differences).

Conclusion. A reliable measure of patient satisfaction has been developed that can also be used for the comparison of GP cooperatives on an organizational level. Overall satisfaction was high, showing highest levels for home visit and lowest levels for telephone advice.

Keywords: Family practice; out-of-hours; patient satisfaction; primary health care.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.