Editorial

摘要

Improving service efficiency and effectiveness: the resource implications Patient satisfaction is among the most common healthcare outcomes we measure and a powerful policy and practice change mechanism. Consequently, patient satisfaction questionnaires are being refined. For example, major efforts are made to convert existing patient satisfaction instruments for use in countries other than the one where the questionnaire was developed and used. In this issue, Roghayaeh Khabiri and colleagues go an extra mile to ensure that an established patient satisfaction questionnaire is valid, reliable and usable among Tehran's Persian speaking inpatients. The literature review, patient and expert staff interviews, and statistical testing, using powerful techniques, ensure the final instrument was appropriate. The psychometric issues that emerged may surprise our readers, which underline that off-the-shelf questionnaires need testing and possibly developing in alien environments. The down side, on the other hand, is that patient satisfaction data met-analyses become more challenging if the questionnaire varies in different contexts.