The dilemma of conflicting attitudes: survey results or community perceptions?

This present article investigates conflicting community attitudes and formal survey results. The survey results suggest that patients viewed their physicians' and nurses' competency and care very highly, as well as receiving satisfactory care in specialized departments. The results further suggest that hospital meals were less satisfactory in terms of patient enjoyment of meals and with the services of the dietitian. However, one major area of concern was the low number of survey responses and the recommendations that are made for improving the response rate. Demographic inconsistencies in the survey results are reviewed as evidence of lack of validity lending support to the contrary community perception of low health care quality at the hospital. Suggestions are made for improvement of the survey instrument and procedures to insure greater validity and reliability.