Brief Emergency Department Patient Satisfaction Scale (BEPSS); Development of a New Practical Instrument

INTRODUCTION Methodologically correct assessment of patient satisfaction (PS) plays a crucial role for quality-improvement purposes. Evaluation of Iranian literature on emergency department's PS resulted in an emerging need for developing a new instrument with satisfactory psychometric properties. The present study, aimed to develop and initially validate a scale to measure PS in emergency departments. METHODS A sample of 301 patients was selected in 2014 from two hospitals in Tehran. A pool of 24 items was prepared for administering. An item analysis was conducted to evaluate the quality of each item. Validity and reliability of the scale were evaluated. The data were analyzed using SPSS. RESULTS Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis yielded in a 20-item scale in five domains named emergency department staff, emergency department environment, physician care satisfaction, general patient satisfaction, and patient's family's satisfaction. Validity and factor structure of the scale were reported satisfactory. Reliability coefficients of the domains ranged between 0.75 and 0.88. CONCLUSION The findings of the present study provided evidence for psychometric properties of a newly developed scale for PS assessment in emergency departments. Five underlying components of PS were found in the item pool. In sum, this scale may be used in research and emergency departments to measure PS.