A brief scale for assessing patients' satisfaction with care in outpatientpsychiatric services

Objective: The authors evaluated the reliability and preliminary validity o f the Charleston Psychiatric Outpatient Satisfaction Scale, a 15-item measu re of patients' satisfaction designed for use in outpatient settings. The i nstrument uses a 5-point Likert-type response format that minimizes positiv e response bias and optimizes variability and predictive validity. Methods: The Charleston Psychiatric Outpatient Satisfaction Scale was administered to 282 patients seen in psychiatric outpatient clinics affiliated with a pu blic-academic psychiatric institution over a one-week period in 1995. Resul ts The internal reliability of the instrument was high (alpha=.87), and its convergent validity was supported by the significant correlation of all it ems with anchor items that measured overall satisfaction with care and like lihood of recommending the clinic to others. The best predictors of overall ratings of care were the items measuring patients' satisfaction with helpf ulness of the services and with the respect Shown for patients' opinions ab out treatment. The best predictors of recommendation of the program to othe rs were the items measuring satisfaction with matching of the treatment pla n to patients' individual needs and with the respect shown for patients' op inions about treatment. Mean scores for all items ranged from 3.6 (satisfac tion with parking) to 4.5 (satisfaction with helpfulness of the secretary a nd with the overall quality of care), indicating that overall satisfaction in this sample was high, Conclusions: The results provide preliminary suppo rt for the reliability and validity of the Charleston Psychiatric Outpatien t Satisfaction Scale.