[Consumer participation in the shaping of clinical quality assurance. A handling-oriented study of patient satisfaction].

Health care in a department of rheumatology was evaluated by interviewing 15 patients by a person not associated with the department. The patients' evaluation of the health care was then further evaluated by 264 former patients and the staff. There was a considerable mismatch between the patients' and staff's rating of the problems. The patients' feedback was then used systematically to choose between alternative methods of organising and providing the health care, and the effect of this was then re-evaluated by the patients.