Development and validation of the patient-healthcare provider communication scale

Our objective was to construct the Patient-Healthcare Provider Communication Scale (P-HCS) in Chinese. An initial sample of 494 healthcare students and providers in Taiwan participated in the scale development stage, and another sample of 150 participants was then used to examine the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the P-HCS. We conducted exploratory factor analysis and derived 23 items across 4 factors: perception of trust and receptivity, patient-centered information giving, rapport building, and facilitation of patient involvement. Significant correlations between the P-HCS and the Provider-Patient Relationship Questionnaire also provided evidence of our scale’s concurrent validity. The Cronbach’s α and test-retest reliability coefficients for the entire scale and subscales ranged from.72 to.93, and from.80 to.90, respectively. Thus, the P-HCS can be considered a reliable and valid instrument to measure patient-healthcare provider communication in the Chinese context.