Customer Satisfaction as a Quality Factor in Geriatric Rehabilitation

Customer satisfaction is relevant for geriatric rehabilitation, besides objective outcomes. We aimed at measur- ing customer satisfaction at discharge from our rehabilitative wards, and at singling out its predictive factors. We studied 506 elderly patients, aged 78 ± 8 years. Satisfaction at discharge scored high in all 4-levels graded items of a questionnaire surveying perception of patient improvement, quality of rehabilitative treatment, physicians' and nurses' intervention, personal care, lodging quality, goodness of information got. Mean overall rating (scoring 0 to 10) of the rehabilitative stay was 9.2 ± 2.1, median and mode were 10. Rating correlated with: relative functional gain (r = 0.23, p < .000), absolute Barthel Index total score at discharge (r = 0.18, p < .000), net gain in Barthel Index total score at discharge (r = 0.1, p = 0.021), and improvement in CIRS Severity Index (r = 0.9, p = 0.043). Relative functional gain was the only variable pre- dictive of rating that was retained by stepwise multiple regressions (p < .000).