The consumer quality index anthroposophic healthcare: a construction and validation study.

Background: Accounting for the patients' perspective on quality of care has become increasingly important in the development of Evidence Based Medicine as well as in governmental policies. In the Netherlands the Consumer Quality (CQ) Index has been developed to measure the quality of care from the patients' perspective in different healthcare sectors in a standardized manner. Although the scientific accountability of anthroposophic healthcare as a form of integrative medicine is growing, patient experiences with anthroposophic healthcare have not been measured systematically.