Assessment of patient satisfaction with the preoperative anesthetic evaluation

BACKGROUND The evaluation of patient satisfaction is a core aspect of the continuous quality improvement in anesthesia service that can be affected by the preoperative anesthetist visit. This visit enables the anesthetist to know about the patient's general health status and the nature of surgery, to choose the type of anesthesia, and to discuss perioperative complications and their management with the patient. Patients have sometimes complained about the information given during the preoperative anesthetic evaluation in the University of Gondar teaching and referral hospital. The aim of this study was to determine the level of patient satisfaction with the preoperative anesthetist visit. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted from February 15 to April 15, 2013. All consecutive elective patients who were operated upon under anesthesia during the study period were interviewed 24 hours after operation. A pretested questionnaire and checklists, which were developed based on the hospital's anesthetic evaluation sheet, were used for data collection. RESULTS A total of 116 elective patients were operated upon under anesthesia during the study period. Of these, 102 patients were included in our study, with a response rate of 87.9%. Anesthetists introduced themselves to ∼24% patients; provided information about anesthesia to ∼32%, postoperative complications to ∼21%, postoperative analgesia to ∼18, and postoperative nausea and vomiting to ∼21%; and spent adequate time with ∼74%. Patients' questions were answered by the anesthetist in ∼65% of cases, and ∼65% of patients had reduced anxiety after the anesthetist visit. The patients' overall satisfaction with the preoperative anesthetist visit was ∼65%. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Patient satisfaction with the preoperative anesthetic evaluation was low compared with the Royal College of Anaesthetists standards. Preoperative anesthetic evaluation should be emphasized.