Development and validation of a questionnaire to assess satisfaction with hospital emergency care

ObjectiveTo develop and validate a questionnaire to determine satisfaction with the hospital emergency department.DesignCross-sectional study to validate a telephone questionnaire designed in Spanish by a panel of experts.SettingThe emergency department of Hospital Gregorio Marañón, a tertiary level hospital of the Spanish national health system.ParticipantsA sample of 651 emergency department patients completed the questionnaire.Main Outcome MeasuresThe psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated; namely, construct, criterion validity, predictive validity and internal consistency.ResultsTwo dimensions—comfortable service and personalised service—were identified from the exploratory factor analysis, and these accounted for 63% of the variance. Both factors showed a positive correlation with the global assessment items ‘global satisfaction with the attention received in the emergency ward’ and ‘Would you recommend this emergency department?’ The predictive validity of the questionnaire was assessed by means of discriminant analysis, which showed that 66.7% of patients were correctly classified. Internal consistency measured by Cronbach's alpha resulted in a value greater than 0.80 for both dimensions.ConclusionsThis questionnaire fulfils the necessary psychometric properties to be considered a useful and reliable tool for measuring patient satisfaction with hospital emergency services.