Surveys of patient satisfaction: II--Designing a questionnaire and conducting a survey.

teaching hospitals than from other hospitals. The retrieval rate was lower from one region than from the other, independent of the proportion of patients treated at teaching hospitals.-> / For deceased patients the retrieval of case notes varied with district of residence but no association was found with the region of residence, the year of death, or the teaching status of the hospital. Of 223 patients recorded as having had radiotherapy, 184 were deceased. Records were retrieved from 11 centres treating 216 patients. The overall response rate was 172/216 (80%), but response ranged from 50% to 100% for the individual centres. The retrieval rate was lower from one region than from the other, but retrieval of records was similar for surviving and deceased patients and did not vary by year of death, district of residence, or the teaching status of the hospital.