Services quality for people with rheumatoid arthritis: Iranian patients′ perspective

Abstract

Background: Service quality (SQ) refers primarily to how the care received is perceived and is influenced by the physical, social, and cultural context and nonhealth aspects of care, such as access, respect, and confidentiality. This study aimed to assess SQ for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from the patients' perspective. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 172 people with RA who received care from specialist clinics of Isfahan University of medical sciences in 2013. SQ was measured using comprehensive quality measurement in healthcare_service quality (CQMH_SQ) questionnaire. Questionnaire content validity was reviewed and confirmed by 10 experts and its reliability was confirmed based on Cronbach's alpha index (α =0. 803). A measure of SQ was derived by combining the relative importance and actual performance. Data analyzed using the SPSS-17 statistical package. Results: Study findings indicate average SQ score were 7.91 (0.87) and demonstrated which aspects of SQ took a weak score in total SQ for people with RA. Confidentiality and choice of care provider achieved the highest and availability of support group had the lowest scores SQ scores. Participants with good control of their disease had higher scores (P = 0.042) and SQ score customer quality score have positive relationship with increasing each year in elapsed time of diagnosis (P = 0. 028). Conclusions: According to average score of customer quality, study findings indicate that patient and provider participation in quality improvement activities can be used as an effective solution and also needs for focus on such aspect of health care quality that were more important for consumer, also dimension have worst quality such as availability of support group.