In vitro fertilization healthcare professionals generally underestimate patients' satisfaction with quality of care.

INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have mainly compared professionals' and patients' ratings of the importance of different care aspects, finding poor agreement between the groups concerning patient-centered quality of care. There is still little known about professionals' knowledge of how patients experience the quality of care they receive during in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. The aim of this study was to investigate how IVF healthcare professionals estimate patients' experience of patient-centered quality of care and if certain factors influenced the IVF professionals' perceptions and IVF patients' experience of quality of care.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: All 16 IVF public and private clinics in Sweden participated in this cross-sectional study. A total of 268 IVF healthcare professionals and 3298 patients (women and men) undergoing IVF treatment between January and May 2015 participated by answering the validated questionnaire "Quality from the patients' perspective of in vitro fertilization treatment" (QPP-IVF).

RESULTS: Healthcare professionals significantly underestimated patients' satisfaction with the patient-centered quality of care they received in all aspects measured. Both patients and professionals rated the most deficient factors to be "responsibility/continuity", "participation" and "availability". Healthcare professionals and patients belonging to private clinics evaluated patient-centered care as significantly better than professionals and patients at public clinics in almost all aspects measured.

CONCLUSION: The results of this study will increase the professionals' understanding of the patients' experiences during IVF treatment and provide additional knowledge when identifying areas to prioritize to improve quality of care.