Abstract

Using past measures of consumer feedback, the aim of the present study was to construct a consumer opinion survey for use in community health centre settings; to pilot the survey instrument across a number of community health centres; and to validate the instrument. A total of 950 consumers attending one of six targeted services (physiotherapy, dental, podiatry, counselling/social work, dietetics, and speech pathology) across four northern metropolitan community health centres in Victoria were invited to participate. Returned surveys were analysed using principal component analysis and the extracted scales were tested for internal consistency and validity. Out of the 950 surveys distributed 471 were returned (response rate of 50%). The survey instrument was found to measure consumer opinion regarding satisfaction with centre environment and satisfaction with service provision. The centre environment scale consisted of one factor, with a Cronbach alpha of .80. The service provision scale consisted of two factors: 'aspects of the service provider' and 'benefits of the visit'. Reliability for the total scale was .93. The two scales correlated moderately with a validity item measuring overall satisfaction. The Primary Health Care Consumer Opinion Survey is a reliable and valid measure, which provides the potential for the establishment of norms to assess consumer opinion.