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BMC Ophthalmology 2007
Patients' experiences with quality of hospital care: the Consumer Quality Index Cataract QuestionnaireAbstract: Survey data of 4,635 respondents were available. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to evaluate the construct validity of the questionnaire and item-correlations and inter-factor correlations were calculated. Secondly, Cronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated to assess the internal consistency of the scales. Thirdly, to evaluate the ability of the questionnaire to discriminate between hospitals, multilevel analyses were performed with patients hierarchically nested within hospitals.Exploratory factor analysis resulted in 14 quality of care items subdivided over three factors (i.e. communication with ophthalmologist, communication with nurses, and communication about medication). Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.89, 0.76 and 0.79 indicated good internal consistency. Multilevel analyses showed that the questionnaire was able to measure differences in patients' experiences with hospital care regarding communication with ophthalmologist and communication about medication. In addition, there was variation between hospitals regarding ophthalmologist ratings, hospital ratings and one dichotomous information item.These findings suggest that the CQI Cataract is a reliable and valid instrument. This instrument can be used to measure patients' experiences with three domains of hospital care after a cataract operation and is able to assess differences in evaluated care between hospitals.Managed competition between health insurance organizations has been introduced in several industrialized countries [1]. In the Netherlands, consumers have a free choice of health insurers. Competition between insurers is possible with respect to premiums and quality of contracted providers. The basic benefits package is set by law [2] and is therefore no element in competition. Competition is expected to take place on the basis of prices (premiums), the service quality of insurers, and the quality of the care providers that they contract [3]. Therefore, transparent information a
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