Patients' experiences with continuum of care across hospitals. A multilevel analysis of Consumer Quality Index Continuum of Care.

OBJECTIVE: Communication between professionals is essential because it contributes to an optimal continuum of care. Whether patients experience adequate continuum of care is uncertain. To address this, a questionnaire was developed to elucidate this care process from a patients' perspective. In this study, the instrument's ability to measure differences in "Consumer Quality Index Continuum of Care" scores between hospitals was investigated.

METHODS: The questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 2159 patients and comprised of 22 items divided over four domains, GP approach, GP referral, specialist and collaboration. Multilevel analysis was conducted to identify case-mix and determine this questionnaire's ability to measure differences in domain scores between hospitals.

RESULTS: Based on a 65% response rate, 1404 questionnaires were available for analysis. Case-mix of patient characteristics across hospitals could not be demonstrated. Some differences in scores between hospitals were observed. At most two in eight hospitals showed different domain scores.

CONCLUSION: The ability of this questionnaire to measure differences in continuum of care scores between hospitals is limited. The outcome of this survey suggests that hospitals provide a similar level of continuum of care from a patient's perspective.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: This questionnaire is especially useful for measuring differences between patients.