Factors determining family caregiver's satisfaction with home care in the Taipei metropolitan area.

BACKGROUND: Among all types of long-term care, many studies have shown that home care is preferable. The increasing growth of an aging population with a predictable increase in chronic illnesses emphasizes the need to re-evaluate the current long-term care system. Because long-term care requires family members to participate as caregivers, there are resulting emotional, physical, and financial burdens, while to interacting with patients who suffer severe functional impairment. As these burdens exacerbate through time, family caregivers often seek assistance from home-care services. Evaluating the quality of home care provides an opportunity to adjust future planning and to envision a more ideal and effective home care plan in the Taipei metropolitan area. METHODS: This research was designed to evaluate the quality of home care by examining family caregivers' satisfaction with home-care services they render. Nineteen attributes of home-care services are cited in this study. The degree of satisfaction with each attribute of services was measured, using the Likert method of five response alternatives from "does not need to be improved at all" to "needs to be improved completely", coding from 5 to 1. The degree of general satisfaction with home care was reflected by averaging respondents' replies across 19 attributes. RESULTS: More than 91.0% of the family caregivers believed that respect from, consideration of, concern for questions by and acceptance of suggestions from home-care workers did not need any improvement. In contrast, at least two-thirds of the family caregivers felt the speedy provision of services in an emergency and the degree of ease of contact with home-care workers by telephone were acceptable only to some degree. For general satisfaction, 79.3% of the family caregivers scored in the range of 4.00-5.00 which indicated a need for mile improvement in services. The number of attributes desired which were in fact received was a significant determinant of general satisfaction with home-care services provided. Family caregivers who were credited with at least 14 attributes tended to be more satisfied with home-care services than the respondents who received fewer than 14. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, subjects receiving home-care services were generally satisfied. However, they were less satisfied with the ease of contacting home care workers by telephone and the speed of receiving needed services in an emergency. The more desired attributes of home care received reflected higher satisfaction with home-care services.