Development of the 'patient perspective on care and rehabilitation process' instrument (POCR)

Background and aims: There is a lack of instruments for assessing patient-perceived quality of care developed from a process perspective and also from theoretical concepts based on a patient perspective. The objective was to develop an instrument for following-up the care and rehabilitation process of the elderly from the patients' perspective. Methods: The present instrument, the "Patient perspective On Care and Rehabilitation process" (POCR), is based on a theoretical framework for the patients' evaluation of the care process, i.e., an instrument-construction reflecting that the patients' needs differed during the care process. The POCR contains two scales; one measures the fulfilment of needs and the other the importance of the fulfilment of needs. Data collection took place via telephone interviews. Results: A factor analysis based on 306 cases resulted in seven factors reflecting the different phases in the care process and with an explained variance of 60.8. Assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, the internal consistency was 0.83 for the total importance scale and between 0.55-0.71 for each factor. Conclusions: The POCR is a valid, reliable and useful multidimensional instrument for measuring patient-perceived outcome of the care and rehabilitation process in the elderly. ©2002, Editrice Kurtis.