Psychometric properties of the Quality in Psychiatric Care - Outpatient (QPC-OP) instrument

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to test the psychometric properties and dimensionality of the Quality in Psychiatric Care - Outpatient (QPC-OP) instrument, in order to determine whether the model of QPC that is applicable to the inpatient clinic is also applicable to the outpatient clinic, and to briefly describe the patients' perceptions of quality of psychiatric outpatient care. A sample of 1340 outpatients from 15 general adult psychiatric clinics in Sweden participated in the study. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the QPC-OP consists of eight dimensions, and has a factor structure largely corresponding to that of the QCP - Inpatient instrument. The internal consistency of the factors was generally acceptable, except in the case of two, where there were not enough items. Thus, the QPC-OP shows adequate psychometric properties. The patients' ratings of quality of care were generally high; the highest rating was for 'encounter' and the lowest for 'discharge'. The quality of discharge was rated as the lowest among the eight dimensions in 14 of the participating outpatient clinics. Thus, this dimension would seem to indicate an important area for improvement. The QPC-OP includes important aspects of patients' assessments of quality of care, and offers a simple and inexpensive way to evaluate psychiatric outpatient care.

Satisfaction measurement instruments for healthcare service users: a systematic review

“…Even though patient satisfaction has been widely studied in healthcare, no gold standard instrument or even a validated instrument was found for many different contexts 20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56 . The option to develop new instruments by the healthcare organizations can reflect the specificity of each culture or health settings, but, at the same time, this phenomenon can show a gap in state-of-the-art approaches in this area.…”

The Quality in Psychiatric Care-Forensic In-Patient Staff (QPC-FIPS) instrument: Psychometric properties and staff views of the quality of forensic psychiatric services in Sweden

“…The instrument QPC is a family of instruments developed for specific psychiatric settings, with a common core and context-dependent modules. The QPC family currently consists of four instruments, one psychometrically tested for in-patients (QPC-IP) [21], one for outpatients (QPC-OP), [22], one for forensic in-patients (QPC-FIP) [23], and one for forensic in-patient staff (QPC-FIPS), which was used in this study.…”

Participant Satisfaction with Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)

“…Perreault et al (2010) recognized the improvement in the strength of satisfaction surveys as evidenced by valid and reliable standardized questionnaires based on self-administered questionnaires and personal interviews. However, Schröder et al (2011) acknowledged "There are few published instruments for evaluating the quality of outpatient psychiatric care, specifically from the patients' perspectives" (p. 446). The rarity of reliable and valid assessments of patient satisfaction within mental health care also is recognized in the Evaluation of Client Services Study (Berghofer, Castille, & Link, 2010).…”

“…Their findings consisted of five concepts: "the patient's dignity," "the patient's sense of security with regard to care," "the patient's participation in the care," "the patient's recovery," and "the patient's care environment" (p. 446). With these patient perspectives, Schröder et al (2011) developed the Quality of Psychiatric Care-Outpatient instrument (QPC-OP) to measure patient satisfaction. The QPC-OP provides a more accurate representation of the aspects of quality of care that are relevant and important to patients.…”

“…What does high quality of care look like to patients? Schröder et al (2011) conducted a phenomenographic interview study to establish a comprehensible definition according to patients. Their findings consisted of five concepts: "the patient's dignity," "the patient's sense of security with regard to care," "the patient's participation in the care," "the patient's recovery," and "the patient's care environment" (p. 446).…”