Measuring patients' experiences with rheumatic care: the consumer quality index rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatologists and other caregivers can learn from patients' experiences with the quality of care that can be measured with the CQ-index Rheumatoid Arthritis (CQ-index RA) survey. Patients with RA (n = 590) received this survey were they rated their actual experiences and what they find important in rheumatic healthcare. Descriptive analyses and psychometric methods were used to test the reliability. The response rate was 69%. The items in the pilot instrument could be grouped into 10 scales (α ranged from 0.77 to 0.94). The most important quality aspects according to patients concerned the alertness when prescribing medication. Providing patients with information on a special website of the hospital about RA was the highest quality improvement aspect. The results of this study show that the CQ-index RA is a reliable instrument for quality assessment from the patients' perspective. The instrument provides rheumatologists and other caregivers with feedback for service improvement initiatives.