Assessment of quality of delivered care to patients with rheumatoid arthritis based on a model of Comprehensive Quality Measurement

Quality of care from the perspective of patients is increasingly considered an important component of comprehensive chronic disease management and as instrument that use for evaluation of quality. This study aimed to assess of quality of delivered care among patients with rheumatoid arthritis based on a model of Comprehensive Quality Measurement in Health care (CQMH). A cross-sectional study was conducted with 170 people with rheumatoid arthritis who were received care from specialist clinics of Isfahan University of medical sciences in 2013. Validity of The study questionnaires were reviewed and confirmed by 8 specialist in rheumatology and research and there reliability was confirmed according to Cronbach''s alpha index (Service Quality (SQ); α = 0. 721، Technical Quality (TQ); α = 0. 766، Costumer Quality (CQ); α = 0. 803). Final scores for each dimension were referred on a 0-100 scale with high values indicating better quality. Data analyzed using the SPSS-19 statistical package. Independent Samples Test، ANOVA Tests were conducted to compare CQ، SQ، TQ and QI score between categorical variables. The average Quality Index was 72. 70 of a 0-100 scale and average SQ، TQ، CQ score were 79. 09، 68. 54، and 70. 25 respectively. For CQ only 19. 8% of participations staying the course of action even under stress and financial constraints، there was a significant gap between what Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) care they received and what was recommended in the guideline for TQ and the concept of service quality was poorly developed in many cases، specifically «availability of support group» that was the lowest scores. According to the present study quality of care the patient’s perspective was low، thus its need to pay attention to patient partnership and empowering them to manage their condition. Also there are need to Promote compliance and establish association of rheumatology patients.