Development and psychometric evaluation of the hospitalized patients’ expectations for treatment scale-patient version-satisfaction scale

This study aimed to develop and initially assess the reliability and psychometric properties of the Hospitalized Patients' Expectations for Treatment Scale - Patient Version - Satisfaction Scale (HOPE-PS), a structured assessment tool that measures patient satisfaction based on expectations. Medical experts and patients were consulted, and their opinions were gathered and consolidated using the Delphi method. A total of 1,000 inpatients from various wards of a general hospital in China were recruited for the study. Exploratory graph analysis (EGA) was implemented to identify the dimensionality of measurement scale. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of three competing models (i.e., unidimensional model, two-factor model, and bifactor model) was conducted to determine the final structure of the scale. EGA revealed a two-factor structure (satisfactions with treatment experience-related expectations and treatment outcome-related expectations), while the bifactor model showed the best fit indices among three competing models in CFA. The full scale showed good internal consistency with a Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.88. The HOPE-PS scale has demonstrated promising internal consistency and reliability in this study, a more comprehensive validation process is warranted.