Family members' experiences of the quality of geriatric care

The quality of institutional geriatric care is a topical issue in Finland. The study to be described here is part of a Finnish project on the quality assessment and development of long-term geriatric care provided by the City of Helsinki. The health care division of the City of Helsinki authorized an outside survey of long-term geriatric care in the hospitals providing such care in 1998. Based on the results, recommendations concerning the development of geriatric care were issued. In the years 1999-2000, a further education programme was arranged for ward nurses, chief nurses and heads of profit centres concerning leadership in long-term geriatric nursing. A re-survey was conducted in 2001, using the same criteria of quality assessment. The purpose of this paper is to report on the quality of institutional geriatric nursing as evaluated by family members in 2001 and to compare the responses to those obtained in 1998. The results are presented as frequency and percentage distributions, means and medians and cross-tabulations. The responding family members were generally content with the care of their elderly relatives: 92% said they were very satisfied or satisfied with the care, and the average of the marks given for geriatric care was 8.3 (range 4-10). Family members were more content now than in 1998, when the corresponding figures were 86% and 7.3 (range 4-10). Nevertheless, the results still highlight certain aspects that should be improved and developed.