A Social Network Approach to the Estimation of Perceived Quality of Health Care

Background. Perceived quality of health care services (PQC) is often investigated with inadequate techniques which may lead to biased results. Objective. The aim of the present study is to develop a proof-of-concept for estimating the PQC using a social network approach. Results have then been compared with those collected by the Customer Relations Office in the annual traditional survey. Material and Methods.783 pairs of questionnaires were handed out to patients in an oncology hospital, each composed by: the CRO annual questionnaire, composed by 15 question about the perception of quality satisfaction rate and the scale-up (NSUM) questionnaire composed by 20 questions in which 5 were reproducing the main target of CRO to the estimation of PQC. Principal findings. Differences emerged between the two techniques. NSUM seems to provide lower estimates of PQC with respect to CRO. Conclusion. NSUM could be a promising method for assessing the perceived quality of care.