The scale product technique as a means of enhancing the measurement of patient satisfaction.

Measurement of patient satisfaction has long been hampered by two resolvable problems: a lack of content validity in commonly used instruments, and a lack of variability in satisfaction scores when these same instruments are used. Most patient satisfaction instruments have been developed from the perspective of the provider or institution rather than that of the patient, creating a situation of questionable content validity for these measures. Additionally, most patient satisfaction measures yield data that are invariant and consistently positively biased. Both of these problems can be addressed methodologically--through tool development using a qualitative method designed to obtain the patient's perspective, and through the use of the scale product technique to decrease the effect of acquiescence, thereby increasing variability in item responses.