Quality of care from the perspective of elderly people: the QUOTE-Elderly instrument

Background: patient views on the quality of care are usually assessed by me ans of patient satisfaction questionnaires. Aim: to develop an instrument that would: (i) produce data related to the e xpectations and experiences of noninstitutionalized elderly people, (ii) co ntain items that had been formulated in collaboration with elderly people, (iii) measure quality from the perspective of the users of health care serv ices and (iv) produce data on generic quality aspects and quality aspects s pecifically related to the needs of elderly people. Methods: we developed the instrument for measuring quality of care from the perspective of non-institutionalized elderly people (QUOTE-Elderly) by usi ng a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. We obtained empir ical data on the opinions and experiences of 338 elderly people. We evaluat ed the taxonomy of the instrument, internal consistency of (sub)scales and the feasibility of the instrument using explorative and confirmative factor analyses and reliability analysis. Results: using scale optimization, we produced a self-administered question naire on quality of health care from the perspective of elderly people. Thi s contains scientific characteristics and provides specific information for practical quality-assurance policies.