Consumer satisfaction at a child and adolescent state psychiatric hospital

Objective: This study examined satisfaction with services among patients in a child psychiatric hospital and their parents, and assessed the relations hip between consumer satisfaction and the perception of improvement in the problem that led to hospitalization. Methods: A consumer satisfaction surve y developed by the investigators was administered to three sampling waves o f child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients (N = 157) and their parents o r guardians (N = 111). Ninety-five percent of patients contacted and 97 per cent of their parents or guardians agreed to participate in the study. The survey provided data about the children's and parents' satisfaction with in patient care and their perceptions of the children's clinical improvement. Results: Most parents and children reported high satisfaction with patient care. Twenty-eight percent of children and 21 percent of parents reported s ome form of abuse by the staff during the hospital stay: Those who reported abusive behavior were significantly less satisfied with the hospital exper ience than those who did not report abuse. The participants' perception of clinical improvement was only weakly related to their satisfaction. Conclus ions: Most child psychiatric patients and their parents will participate in consumer satisfaction surveys about inpatient care. Consumers are critical of a hospital if specific prompts in the survey are provided. An unexpecte dly high level of consumer-reported ab;se was found. Consumer-perceived cli nical improvement was only weakly related to satisfaction.