Predictors of Perceived Quality of Care in People with Heart Failure

Understanding patients' perception of quality of care is a crucial step in improving healthcare service, but understanding patients' experiences of quality of care is limited, including those with heart failure. This predictive descriptive study aimed to: describe perceptions of quality of care among people with heart failure and determine factors influencing their perception of quality of care including preferences for participation in care, symptom distress, and patient-related factors of age, gender and education. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 92 participants with heart failure at one tertiary university hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. The measures used were Personal Characteristics Questionnaire, Control Preference Scale, Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Heart Failure and the Quality of Care from Patients' Perspectives Questionnaire. The results revealed that most participants reported balanced-high quality of care. The most distressing symptom was difficulty when lying flat, and symptom distress and preference for participation in care were significant predictors of patients' perception of quality of care. Participants with high preference for participation (passive-shared, collaborative) perceived quality of care lower than participants with low preference for participation (passive). The findings of this study can be used to design nursing intervention programs for managing symptom distress and promoting patient participation in care to improve perceived quality of care among patients with heart failure during hospitalization.