Quality of care through the eyes of the patient in a Spanish inflammatory bowel disease unit.

Background: the quality of care perceived by the patient is a fundamental aspect of the accreditation program of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) units. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of healthcare from the patient's point of view in an IBD Unit.

Methods: consecutive patients diagnosed with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis that attended the IBD Unit of the Hospital Universitario de La Princesa and anonymously filled out the Quality of Care through the Patient's Eyes - Inflammatory Bowel Disease (QUOTE-IBD) questionnaire were included in the study. QUOTE-IBD is a validated 23-item questionnaire, which explores the Importance given by patients to care aspects and the Performance of medical practices and healthcare workers. Each item assesses eight care dimensions: Competence, Autonomy, Courtesy, Accessibility, Information, Costs, Continuity of care and Accommodation.

Results: one hundred patients from our IBD Unit completed the QUOTE-IBD. In terms of dimensions, patients gave the highest Importance score to aspects related to Information (8.24), followed by Competence in IBD care (7.86). Performance scores ranged from 0.4 for Continuity of care to 0.01 for Cost.

Conclusions: the application of the QUOTE-IBD questionnaire to assess the level of satisfaction of our patients with the quality of healthcare provided by our unit has allowed us to identify areas of improvement in the Information and Continuity of care dimensions. The highest score according to the perspective of our patients was obtained in the Competence in care dimension.