Measuring quality in elderly care: possibilities and limitations of the vignette method. (29th July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Poksinska, Bozena Bonnie; Cronemyr, Peter
• Is Part Of: Total quality management & business excellence. Volume 28:Number 9/10(2017)
• Page Start: 1194
• Page End: 1207
• Publication Date: 2017-07-29
• Subjects: user and customer surveys -- anchoring vignettes -- quality of public services -- elderly care; Total quality management -- Periodicals; Quality control -- Periodicals; Quality assurance -- Periodicals; Production management -- Quality control -- Periodicals; 658.401305
• DOI: 10.1080/14783363.2017.1303875
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-3363

Abstract

Abstract : Listening to citizens is seen as an important source of information about public service performance. In Sweden, to secure the quality of elderly care, the National Board of Health and Welfare conducts a yearly survey of in-home elderly care services and nursing homes. A central problem of the existing survey methodology is the interpersonal incomparability of survey responses due to differences in preferences and health conditions. One way to deal with this problem is to use the survey methodology with anchoring vignettes. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the possibilities and limitations of using anchoring vignettes as a general survey method and specifically to test the method for measuring elderly care quality. The vignettes were developed interactively with professionals working in elderly care and evaluated with 1600 users of in-home elderly care services and nursing homes. The results showed that anchoring vignettes reduce the impact of respondents' personal characteristics on survey results. In general, anchoring vignettes give more robust answers that reduce the problem of incomparability. However, anchoring vignettes increase the complexity of the questionnaire and have limited value in elderly care. Our results indicate that the method might be applicable when using healthier and younger respondents.