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There has been an increasing interest in patient satisfaction assessment across nations recently. This paper reports on a cross-cultural comparison of the comprehensive assessment of satisfaction with care (CASC) response scales. We investigated what proportion of patients wanted care improvement for the same level of satisfaction across samples from oncology settings in France, Italy, Poland and Sweden, and whether age, gender, education level and type of items affected the relationships found. The CASC addresses patient's satisfaction with the care received in oncology hospitals. Patients are invited to rate aspects of care and to mention for each of these aspects, whether they would want improvement. One hundred and forty, 395, 186 and 133 consecutive patients were approached in oncology settings from France, Italy, Poland and Sweden, respectively. Across country settings, an increasing percentage of patients wanted care improvement for decreasing levels of satisfaction. However, in France a higher percentage of patients wanted care improvement for high-satisfaction ratings whereas in Poland a lower percentage of patients wanted care improvement for low-satisfaction ratings. Age and education level had a similar effect across countries. Confronting levels of satisfaction with desire for care improvement appeared useful in comprehending the meaning of response choice labels for the CASC across oncology settings from different linguistic and cultural background. Linguistic or socio-cultural differences were suggested for explaining discrepancies between countries. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to increasing care needs, the reform or development of long-term care (LTC) systems has become a prominent policy issue in all European countries. Cash-for-care schemes-allowances instead of services provided to dependents-represent a key policy aimed at ensuring choice, fostering family care, developing care markets, and containing costs. A detailed analysis of policy documents and regulations, together with a systematic review of existing studies, was used to investigate the differences among six European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden). The rationale and evolution of their various cash-for-care schemes within the framework of their LTC systems also were explored. While most of the literature present cash-for-care schemes as a common trend in the reforms that began in the 1990s and often treat them separately from the overarching LTC policies, this article argues that the policy context, timing, and specific regulation of the new schemes have created different visions of care and care work that in turn have given rise to distinct LTC configurations. A new typology of long-term care configurations is proposed based on the inclusiveness of the system, the role of cash-for-care schemes and their specific regulations, as well as the views of informal care and the care work that they require. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]