Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe instruments used for quality assessment in acute care. Quality care assessment is essential for improving care delivery. Quality instruments can be used to evaluate nurse and patient perspectives in multi-professional care. Therefore, valid and reliable measurement instruments are vital.
Design/methodology/approach: A literature search identified several instruments that measure quality from a nurse and patient perspectives. The questionnaires were appraised in several steps with specific criteria: psychometric properties, underlying construct or test theory, study context, sample characteristics and target population.
Findings: Overall, 14 instruments were evaluated, but only eight questionnaires represented nurse and patient views regarding quality. Instruments showed several disparities in their theoretical foundations and their psychometric properties. Two instruments did not provide validity data and one questionnaire did not report reliability data.
Practical implications: To inform healthcare managers about acute care quality, the authors demonstrated the need for more valid and reliable measurements by using the Guidelines for Critiquing Instrument Development and Validation Reports to evaluate quality care instruments' psychometric properties.
Originality/value: There is a long tradition in quality care evaluations using questionnaires. Only a few instruments can be recommended for practical use.
Keywords: Acute care; Assessment; Quality measures.