Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T13:34:31.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patient satisfaction with psychiatric outpatient care in a university hospital setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2013

John Lally ,
Fintan Byrne ,
Eimear McGuire  and
Colm McDonald
John Lally*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry Kings College London and National Psychosis Service, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Fintan Byrne
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland West Galway Mental Health Services, Health Service Executive West, Galway, Ireland
Eimear McGuire
Affiliation:
West Galway Mental Health Services, Health Service Executive West, Galway, Ireland
Colm McDonald
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland West Galway Mental Health Services, Health Service Executive West, Galway, Ireland
*
*Address for correspondence: J. Lally, Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King's College London, King's Health Partners, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. (Email [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives

To measure patient satisfaction with psychiatric outpatient care in a university hospital setting. We wished to ascertain whether there was an association between increased patient satisfaction and background factors such as demographic details, diagnosis and patient preference for outpatient treatment in a hospital or a community setting.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey of individuals’ satisfaction levels with their outpatient treatment. Outpatients were invited to complete the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8), a well validated self-report instrument, along with some additional questions on their attitudes to the service.

Results

One hundred and sixty-two respondents had a mean total CSQ-8 score of 26.7 (s.d. = 4.6) indicating a moderate to high level of satisfaction with outpatient care. Ninety percent of patients were satisfied with their psychiatric outpatient care. There were no significant sociodemographic or clinical associations with satisfaction levels identified. Sixty one percent of patients were in favour of retaining outpatient care in the university hospital.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates high satisfaction levels with psychiatric outpatient care in a university hospital setting. The majority of patients expressed a preference for maintaining outpatient care in the general hospital setting, rather than transferring to a stand-alone mental health facility in a suburban setting.

Keywords

Community treatmentoutpatientpatientpsychiatricsatisfaction
Type
Original Research
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 271 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © College of Psychiatrists of Ireland 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Attkisson, CC, Zwick, R (1982). The client satisfaction questionnaire. Psychometric properties and correlations with service utilization and psychotherapy outcome. Evaluation and Program Planning 5, 233–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barak, Y, Szor, H, Kimhi, R, Kam, E, Mester, R, Elizur, A (2001). Survey of patient satisfaction in adult psychiatric outpatient clinics. European Psychiatry 16, 131–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barker, DA, Shergill, SS, Higginson, I, Orrell, MW (1996). Patients’ views towards care received from psychiatrists. British Journal of Psychiatry 168, 641–646.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berghofer, G, Lang, A, Henkel, H, Schmidl, F, Rudas, S, Schmitz, M (2001). Satisfaction of inpatients and outpatients with staff, environment, and other patients. Psychiatric Services 52, 104–106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blenkiron, P, Hammill, CA (2003). What determines patients’ satisfaction with their mental health care and quality of life? Postgraduate Medical Journal 79, 337–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davy, B, Keizer, I, Croquette, P, Bertschy, G, Ferrero, F, Gex-Fabry, M, Bondolfi, G (2009). Patient satisfaction with psychiatric outpatient care in Geneva: a survey in different treatment settings. Schweizer archive fur neurologie und psychiatrie 160, 240–245.Google Scholar
Greenwood, N, Key, A, Burns, T, Bristow, M, Sedgwick, P (1999). Satisfaction with in-patient psychiatric services. Relationship to patient and treatment factors. British Journal of Psychiatry 174, 159–163.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haycox, A, Unsworth, L, Allen, K, Hodgson, R, Lewis, M, Boardman, AP (1999). North Staffordshire Community Beds Study: longitudinal evaluation of psychiatric in-patient units attached to community mental health centres. 2: Impact upon costs and resource use. British Journal of Psychiatry 175, 79–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henderson, C, Phelan, M, Loftus, L, Dall'agnola, R, Ruggeri, M (1999). Comparison of patient satisfaction with community-based vs. hospital psychiatric services. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 99, 188–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, S, Turner, N, Barry, S, O'callaghan, E (2009). Client satisfaction among outpatients attending an Irish community mental health service. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine 26, 128–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holcomb, WR, Parker, JC, Leong, GB, Thiele, J, Higdon, J (1998). Customer satisfaction and self-reported treatment outcomes among psychiatric inpatients. Psychiatric Services 49, 929–934.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hse (2006). A Vision for Change. Report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy. Department of Health and Children & Health Service Executive: Dublin, Ireland.Google Scholar
Hse (2008). National Strategy for Service User Involvement in the Health Service 2008–2013. Department of Health and Children & Health Service Executive: Dublin, Ireland.Google Scholar
Jabbar, F, Casey, P, Schelten, SL, Kelly, BD (2011). What do you think of us? Evaluating patient knowledge of and satisfaction with a psychiatric outpatient service. Irish Journal of Medical Science 180, 195–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessing, LV, Hansen, HV, Ruggeri, M, Bech, P (2006). Satisfaction with treatment among patients with depressive and bipolar disorders. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 41, 148–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Killaspy, H, Gledhill, J, Banerjee, S (1998). Satisfaction of attenders and non-attenders with their treatments at psychiatric out-patient clinics. Psychiatric Bulletin 22, 612–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, DL, Attkisson, CC, Hargreaves, WA, Nguyen, TD (1979). Assessment of client/patient satisfaction: development of a general scale. Evaluation and Program Planning 2, 197–207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattsson, M, Lawoko, S, Cullberg, J, Olsson, U, Hansson, L, Forsell, Y (2005). Background factors as determinants of satisfaction with care among first-episode psychosis patients. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 40, 749–754.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mazor, KM, Clauser, BE, Field, T, Yood, RA, Gurwitz, JH (2002). A demonstration of the impact of response bias on the results of patient satisfaction surveys. Health Services Research 37, 1403–1417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mcintyre, K, Farrell, M, David, A (1989). In-patient psychiatric care: the patient's view. British Journal of Medical Psychology 62, 249–255.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mental health commission (2007a). Quality Framework for Mental Health Services in Ireland. Mental Health Commission 2007. Dublin: Ireland.Google Scholar
Oltedal, S, Garratt, A, Johannessen, JO (2007). Psychiatric outpatients’ experiences with specialized health care delivery. A Norwegian national survey. Journal of Mental Health 16, 271–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggeri, M (1994). Patients’ and relatives’ satisfaction with psychiatric services: the state of the art of its measurement. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 29, 212–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruggeri, M, Salvi, G, Perwanger, V, Phelan, M, Pellegrini, N, Parabiaghi, A (2006). Satisfaction with community and hospital-based emergency services amongst severely mentally ill service users: a comparison study in South-Verona and South-London. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 41, 302–309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruggeri, M, Lasalvia, A, Salvi, G, Cristofalo, D, Bonetto, C, Tansella, M (2007). Applications and usefulness of routine measurement of patients’ satisfaction with community-based mental health care. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Supplement 437, 53–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggeri, M, Lasalvia, A, Bisoffi, G, Thornicroft, G, Vazquez-Barquero, JL, Becker, T, Knapp, M, Knudsen, HC, Schene, A, Tansella, M (2003). Satisfaction with mental health services among people with schizophrenia in five European sites: results from the EPSILON Study. Schizophr Bull 29, 229–245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saila, T, Mattila, E, Kaila, M, Aalto, P, Kaunonen, M (2008). Measuring patient assessments of the quality of outpatient care: a systematic review. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 14, 148–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soelling, ME, Newell, TG (1983). Effects of anonymity and experimenter demand on client satisfaction with mental health services. Evaluation and Program Planning 6, 329–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westerbrook, R, Oliver, RL (1991). The dimensionality of consumption emotion patterns and consumer satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research 7, 81–86.Google Scholar
Wetherell, JL, Kaplan, RM, Kallenberg, G, Dresselhaus, TR, Sieber, WJ, Lang, AJ (2004). Mental health treatment preferences of older and younger primary care patients. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine 34, 219–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed