Assessment of patient satisfaction with psychiatric care - Development andclinical evaluation of a brief consumer satisfaction rating scale (UKU-ConSat)

Quality management and quality control of health services has become increa singly important. Central to the concept of quality of care is the patient' s (the health care consumer's) own view of the care provided and the treatm ent outcome. UKU (Udvalg for Kliniske Undersogelser; that is, Committee for Clinical Trials), a working group within the Scandinavian Society for Psyc hopharmacology (SSP), has designed a brief consumer satisfaction rating sca le, the UKU-ConSat. Based on an extensive literature review, a number of pr inciples related to content, assessment, interview techniques, documentatio n and standardisation steered the design of the rating scale. UKU-ConSat co nsists of six items related to the structure and process of treatment/care, and two items related to outcome and well-being. A manual accompanies the rating scale with guidelines for how to solicit information from the patien t and how to rate each item, A first field trial of the rating scale in 135 inpatients at multiple clinical sites in Finland and Sweden showed that it could be applied to several relevant patient categories (psychotic, affect ive, neurotic, organic and alcohol and substance abuse disorders). Accordin g to both patients and staff the rating scale promises to become useful bot h for research and for improvement of routine psychiatric services.