[Patient satisfaction as a criterion of quality assurance in inpatient psychosomatic rehabilitation].

The investigation of patient satisfaction with treatment by means of simple standardised self-rating instruments is a focal point of monitoring and improvement of treatment quality in the programme of quality assurance of rehabilitation within the statutory social insurance system. In the field of psychosomatic rehabilitation this criterion contains a number of problems due to the individual traits of patients, the treatment institutions, and the rehabilitation process. A structural discrepancy between the patients' attitudes and the requirements of the rehabilitation measure causes a systematic potential of dissatisfaction of the patients throughout the whole rehabilitation procedure. The specific quality of psychosomatic rehabilitation requires differentiation in the assessment and interpretation of patient satisfaction as a criterion of quality assurance as well as in the deduction of subsequent measures for improvement. Doubts are also raised as to the usefulness of a simple and global reference to patient satisfaction as a criterion of quality assurance even beyond the field of psychosomatic rehabilitation.