[A case Management Questionnaire for Family Caregivers of Geriatric Patients]

Background: To ease the burden for family caregivers healthcare concepts are urgently needed. The healthcare concept continuous care in a regional network (RubiN) offers a care and case management in physician networks for geriatric patients and aims to relieve family caregivers. The aim of the study was to develop and to test the psychometric properties of a questionnaire that evaluates the satisfaction and acceptance of the healthcare provided by case management (CM) from the perspective of family caregivers.

Methods: A mixed methods design was used to develop the questionnaire based on qualitative interviews, a literature search and own project experiences. After a pilot run the subsequent data acquisition took place in the participating RubiN physician networks from May to August 2020. Each of the 5 participating networks received a set of 50 questionnaires for family caregivers. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated.

Results: The questionnaire consisted of 11 items. A total of 137 family caregivers participated in the survey (response rate 55%). Overall, the family caregivers were very satisfied (78.1%) with the care offered. There were only a few missing values in the data. The 11 items in the questionnaire loaded on 2 factors. The first factor called effects from coordination showed an internal consistency of 0.843 and for the second factor called accessibility an internal consistency of 0.683 was observed.

Conclusion: The questionnaire with 11 items is characterized by its brevity and includes the acceptance and satisfaction of the care elements offered for family caregivers in a geriatric CM.