Assessing the potential for improvement of primary care in 34 countries: a cross-sectional survey.

Objective: To investigate patients' perceptions of improvement potential in primary care in 34 countries.

Methods: We did a cross-sectional survey of 69 201 patients who had just visited general practitioners at primary-care facilities. Patients rated five features of person-focused primary care - accessibility/availability, continuity, comprehensiveness, patient involvement and doctor-patient communication.

Measuring patients' experiences with palliative care: the Consumer Quality Index Palliative Care.

Background: The Consumer Quality Index Palliative Care (CQ-index PC) is a structured questionnaire for measuring the quality of palliative care from the perspective of care users. CQ-indices assess which care aspects need quality improvement by relating answers about actual care experiences to answers about the importance of certain aspects of care.

Methods: To improve the chance that the new instrument has good content validity, a literature study and individual and group discussions were performed, and a steering committee was consulted to establish the instrument's face and content validity.

Measuring relatives' perspectives on the quality of palliative care: the Consumer Quality Index Palliative Care.

Context: A Consumer Quality Index (CQ-index) is a questionnaire assessing the actual care experiences and how important the recipient finds certain care aspects, as well as the priorities for improving quality. A CQ-index Palliative Care (CQ-index PC) for bereaved relatives was developed to measure the quality of palliative care.

Objectives: This article provides insight into the development and psychometric characteristics of this questionnaire, as well as quality improvement priorities.

Towards more patient centred healthcare: A new Consumer Quality Index instrument to assess patients' experiences with breast care.

Objective: To develop a Consumer Quality Index (CQ-index) Breast Care instrument that measures quality of care from the perspective of patients with (suspicion of) breast cancer.

Methods: To develop a pilot questionnaire, three focus group discussions with breast cancer patients were performed. The questionnaire was sent to 1197 patients.

The patient's perspective of the quality of breast cancer care. The development of an instrument to measure quality of care through focus groups and concept mapping with breast cancer patients.

Quality of care is often described by professionals. However, in this study breast cancer patients participated in developing an instrument that reflects quality of care from the patient's perspective. Through focus groups and concept mapping patients' ideas on determinants of good quality of care were generated and categorised according to similarity and importance.

What is important in evaluating health care quality? An international comparison of user views.

Background: Quality of care from the perspective of users is increasingly used in evaluating health care performance. Going beyond satisfaction studies, quality of care from the users' perspective is conceptualised in two dimensions: the importance users attach to aspects of care and their actual experience with these aspects. It is well established that health care systems differ in performance.

Comparison of patient evaluations of health care quality in relation to WHO measures of achievement in 12 European countries.

Objectives: To gain insight into similarities and differences in patient evaluations of quality of primary care across 12 European countries and to correlate patient evaluations with WHO health system performance measures (for example, responsiveness) of these countries.

Methods: Patient evaluations were derived from a series of Quote (QUality of care Through patients' Eyes) instruments designed to measure the quality of primary care. Various research groups provided a total sample of 5133 patients from 12 countries: Belarus, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

Quality of care from the perspective of the cataract patient. QUOTE cataract questionnaire.

Purpose: To examine the potential of a questionnaire (QUOTE Cataract) to measure quality of care from the perspective of cataract patients in quality-assurance or improvement programs.

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, University Hospital Groningen, Groningen, and Rotterdam Eye Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Methods: Cataract patients (N = 540) who had cataract surgery 2 to 8 months previously rated 31 quality-of-care aspects in terms of importance (range 0, not important, to 10, extremely important) and performance (0 = yes, 1 = no).

Quality of care from the patients' perspective: from theoretical concept to a new measuring instrument.

INTRODUCTION: Patient views on quality of care are of paramount importance with respect to the implementation of quality assurance (QA) and improvement (QI) programmes. However, the relevance of patient satisfaction studies is often questioned because of conceptual and methodological problems. Here, it is our belief that a different strategy is necessary.