Abstract
BackgroundTo explore and better understand how patients evaluate satisfaction in dental care and elicit information from them to develop a dental satisfaction instrument.MethodsPatients currently receiving dental treatment in a teaching hospital were invited to be part of a qualitative research project which involved focus group discussion. Focus groups were conducted in Cantonese and discussions were recorded (audio and video) and later transcribed.ResultsThirty patients participated and a thematic analysis of data from four focus groups helped generate a questionnaire on dental satisfaction. Six themes were extracted from the contents of the focus group: (i) attitude, (ii) cost, (iii) convenience, (iv) pain management, (v) quality, and (vi) patients’ perceived need for prevention of oral disease. Compared to the existing Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire (DSQ), majority of the dental satisfaction aspects mentioned in focus group discussions were similar to items in DSQ supporting its content validity. Focus groups covered more aspects including attitude of dental supporting staff, convenience of emergency services, admission of patients and treatment duration. Consideration of the clinical skills of the operator, hospital infection control, and knowledge on prevention of oral disease were also expressed.ConclusionsThe focus group discussions elicited the views of patients not covered by DSQ items thereby suggesting areas for development of a new satisfaction questionnaire.
Highlights
To explore and better understand how patients evaluate satisfaction in dental care and elicit information from them to develop a dental satisfaction instrument
Patient satisfaction is crucial in the evaluation of the overall quality of care, and the improvement of care services as it may be considered as an outcome of dental care in addition to clinical outcomes [1]
The aim of this study was to elicit information from qualitative interviews with patients to improve the psychometric properties of a dental satisfaction instrument
Summary
To explore and better understand how patients evaluate satisfaction in dental care and elicit information from them to develop a dental satisfaction instrument. Various quantitative questionnaires, such as the 19-item Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire (DSQ) [2], the 10-item Dental Visit Satisfaction Scale (DVSS) [3], the 22-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perception of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) [4], and the. 31-item Australian Dental Satisfaction Scale (DSS) [5], have been developed to assess patients’ satisfaction level. Even though the procedure for constructing these questionnaires include illuminating the dimensions along with interviewees’ (e.g. consumers and patients) perception by qualitative research at the initial stage and have been tested for reliability and validity in populations with dental problems [6,7,8]. There is a need to conduct qualitative research among the dental population to explore the items
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