Pediatric care for exceptional children: an inferential procedure utilizing consumer satisfaction information.

Medical services provided to 402 children with exceptional health and educational needs between 1975 and 1978 were systematically studied to determine consumer satisfaction. Legislation (PL 94-142) has made it mandatory for complete services to be provided to exceptional children from birth to age 21. Although the major responsibility to provide these services lies with local public schools, physicians often are involved and can help to provide optimum care to these children. This report describes a medical-educational system that delivers multispecialty pediatric services. An inferential evaluation procedure has been applied to this system that shows how consumer input can lead to improved medical services. Statistical procedures used to examined the data include analysis of variance, utilized in comparing the satisfaction ratings over time, and multiple linear regression analysis, to predict medical service activities of importance to consumers.