Steps toward a multifactorial satisfaction scale for primary care and mental health services

Abstract

Development of a self-report Service Satisfaction Scale designed to measure consumer response to both health and mental health services is described. Fifteen items assessing perceptions of outcome and practitioner performance were developed for an evaluation of a student health service based on 539 consecutive primary care patients. These items were augmented by 15 more access and procedural items in an evaluation of a student mental health service (N = 146). Finally, eight further items were added in a study of four primary health care clinics serving a general population (N = 280). Factor analyses investigated dimensionality of service satisfaction separately in each sample. Two interpretable satisfaction factors were consistently found across services. Based on item content, the first was called Practitioner Manner and Skill, while the second assessed Perceived Outcome satisfaction. In analyses using 30 items common to the mental health and health clinics samples, additional but weaker factors related to access and office procedures were found. Implications are discussed in light of the ultimate goal of the program of research: to develop a practical, direct, multidimensional measure of service satisfaction capable of providing planners in many settings with discriminating consumer feedback.