Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire from RAND Health Care

The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ), consisting of 80 items, was originally developed by Willis H. Ware and his colleagues (Ware, Snyder, and Wright, 1976 a, b; see “Related Reading” below). A more recent version of the questionnaire is the PSQ-III, available below. The PSQ-III is a 50-item survey that taps global satisfaction with medical care as well as satisfaction with six aspects of care: technical quality, interpersonal manner, communication, financial aspects of care, time spent with doctor, and accessibility of care. A memo on scoring the PSQ-III is also available below. It provides background information, results of psychometric analyses, and scoring rules for measures constructed from the periodic satisfaction surveys.

The PSQ-18 is a short form version that retains many characteristics of its full-length counterpart. The PSQ sub-scales show acceptable internal consistency reliability. Furthermore, corresponding PSQ-18 and PSQ-III subscales are substantially correlate with one another. The PSQ-18 may be appropriate for use in situations where the need for brevity precludes administration of the full-length PSQ-III. The PSQ-18 takes approximately 3-4 minutes to complete.

PSQ-III Documents

PSQ-III Questionnaire

Survey Instrument (PDF)

Scoring the Medical Outcomes Study Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire, PSQ-III

Scoring Instructions (PDF)

PSQ-18 Documents

PSQ-18 Questionnaire

Survey Instrument (PDF)

Scoring Instructions for the PSQ-18

Scoring Instructions (PDF)


Development and Validation of Scales to Measure Patient Satisfaction with Medical Care Services (1976)
Ware, JE, Snyder, MK, and Wright, WR
Vol I, Part A: Review of Literature, Overview of Methods and Results Regarding Construction of Scales. (NTIS Publication No. PB 288-329). Springfield, VA. National Technical Information Service.

Development and Validation of Scales to Measure Patient Satisfaction with Medical Care Services (1976)
Ware, JE, Snyder, MK, and Wright, WR
Vol I, Part B: Results Regarding Scales Constructed from the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire and Measures of Other Health Care Perceptions. (NTIS Publication No. PB 288-329). Springfield, VA. National Technical Information Service.