QuaTheSI - Satisfaction enquiry with clients in stationary and ambulant addiction treatment

Summary	QuaTheSI investigates the satisfaction of clients with the addiction care facility and the advice, care or treatment received there. The project is part of QuaTheDA, the FOPH's (Federal Office of Public Health of the Swiss Confederation) quality assurance system for addiction treatment institutions.
Project manager(s)	Susanne Schaaf (stationärer Sektor), Michelle Dey (ambulanter Sektor)
Duration	Institutionen der stationären Suchthilfe: 2002-2018; Institutionen der ambulanten Suchthilfe: 2011-2018
Client / Funding partner(s)	Federal Office of Public Health of the Swiss Confederation
Cooperaitng partner(s)	Facilities for counselling, treatment or care of persons with addiction probelms

Background

With the QuaTheDA (Quality Therapy Drugs Alcohol) quality assurance system, the FOPH intends to contribute to the professionalisation of services in outpatient and residential addiction care. QuaTheDA has defined a quality standard based on the structural and process quality of addiction care institutions, according to which institutions can be certified. The quality standard comprises various modules. Client satisfaction, which is measured using the "Quality Therapy Satisfaction Instrument" (QuaTheSI), is part of the basic module B/5 (quality management) of the QuaTheDA reference system.

Objective

The purpose of the standardised recording of client satisfaction is to obtain a nationwide overview of the assessment of the range of therapies offered, from the client’s perspective. Additionally, the recording provides the facilities with a tool for internal quality improvement. Participating in the QuaTheSI survey helps the facilities meet the QuaTheDa requirements. QuaTheSI is offered to institutions providing impatient addiction care and for institutions providing outpatient addiction care (addiction counselling, substitution and heroin-assisted treatment, low-threshold contact and drop-in centres) as well as for assisted living facilities.

Method

In the institutions offering stationary addiction treatment, a survey is carried out in a single week, while the survey in outpatient institutions is conducted over a period of six weeks. The QuaTheSI instrument is accessible in three national languages and is available in versions slightly adapted to the treatment sector. The survey contains standardised as well as open questions on the following topics: satisfaction with the services offered, the living conditions in the institution, the general conditions of the treatment (house rules, opening hours, premises, etc.), the counselling or treatment, the team providing treatment, preparation for leaving the institution and personal development due to the treatment. In addition, socio-demographic data, information on the legal basis of the therapy, the length of stay, the current state of health and future prospects are recorded. In inpatient facilities that offer jobs, a “Work” module can also be completed. The survey is completed anonymously. The participating institutions received a confidential institution report (German and French) with the evaluations of their client data, which are compared to evaluations of the reference group. This enables the therapy facilities to compare themselves to their reference group. The institution reports also contain the clients' statements on the open questions, which give the institution concrete indications of strengths and potential for improvement. The institutions are also given the opportunity to easily adapt the questionnaire according to their needs (deleting individual questions, adding new questions). Special evaluations (e.g. comparison of individual departments of an institution) can be carried out on request

Relevance

QuaTheSI enables institutions to evaluate their services from the perspective of their clientele and identify potential for improvement in individual areas. The comparison of the average value of comparable institutions allows a better classification of the results. Institutions that repeatedly participate in QuaTheSI can evaluate the effectiveness of the measures taken. The institutions also receive an overview of the composition of their clientele in terms of demographic and treatment characteristics (duration of treatment, reason for treatment, etc.).