Can compassionate healthcare be measured? The Schwartz Center Compassionate Care Scale™

Abstract Objective Assess psychometric characteristics of an instrument to measure compassionate healthcare. Methods We used Cronbach’s alpha to examine scale reliability, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to examine scale structure, and Mokken analysis to determine if items belonged to a unidimensional scale. Results Results indicated that both sets of items had strong reliability when used to rate individual physicians (Cronbach’s α = .97 and .95). A one factor model was a good fit to both sets of items (χ2(20) 35.23, p > .01, Tucker Lewis Index (TLI) = .98, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = .99, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = .04, and χ2(20) 42.28, p > .01, TLI = .96, CFI = .97, RMSEA = .05. Mokken analysis also supported a unidimensional scale. Both sets of items correlated strongly with an overall measure of patient satisfaction with physicians. Conclusions A unidimensional patient-rated scale reliably measured hospital physicians’ compassion and correlated significantly with patient satisfaction. Additional testing is required to assess its validity and reliability for other healthcare professionals and clinical settings. Practice Implications Measurement of compassionate healthcare is important to patients and healthcare professionals and should be included in research, educational assessment, and healthcare quality performance improvement programs