Abstract
The roommate is the person with whom the patient spends the most time during hospitalization. Past studies show that the roommate influences the patient in a hospital room. This research tests whether the relationship to the roommate should be included as a dimension in health care quality models. Thus, a pre-study was conducted to develop a measurement for the roommate, as there is no measurement for this construct at present. The main study investigated the influence of the roommate, physicians, nurses and other known influencing factors by means of linear regression. The study confirms the roommates’ influence as a fourth dimension of health care quality. Using the pre-study a roommate scale was developed, which helps to include the roommate in health care quality models. The regression analysis shows that the roommate significantly impacts health care quality in addition to the impact of other quality dimensions, in the study.
