Development and validation of a questionnaire to measure hospitals' social reputation

Objective: To design and validate a questionnaire (MeFio) to measure the social reputation of a hospital from patients' and citizens' perspective. Material and methods: We performed a literature review to define the concept of a hospital's social reputation. Four nominal groups were conducted to set up the a priori factors of the MeFio questionnaire. These groups consisted of 47 managers and health professionals and 32 potential customers. Reactive items were identified and a pilot test was conducted to examine comprehension. A random sample of 385 subjects was selected. Ceiling and floor effects, internal consistency, reliability, and construct and criteria validity were analyzed. Results: A total of 343 validated questionnaires (response rate 89%) were collected. The MeFio questionnaire has 21 items grouped into five factors. All items had an item-total correlation higher than 0.30. All factor loads were higher than 0.5; between 66.2% and 80.4% of the variance was explained and Cronbach's alpha was 0.7- 0.88. The construct-composite-reliability scores were higher than 0.7. Standardized scores in the convergent discriminant validity test were higher than 0.6. The factors explained 50% of the variability in satisfaction with the health care received (F = 66.5; p <0.001). Conclusion: The MeFio questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool to measure the five dimensions that define the reputation of a hospital in Spain. (C) 2011 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.