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Clinimetric scale to measure surgeons' satisfaction with anesthesia services

Sylvie Le May, RN MSc^*, Gilles Dupuis, PhD, François Harel, MSc, Marie-Christine Taillefer, BSc, Serge Dubé, MD MSc and Jean-François Hardy, MD^*

^* From the Departments of Anesthesiology, and
Biostatistics, Montreal Heart Institute,
Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal, and
Department of Surgery, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, Montreal.

Address correspondence to:Dr. Jean-François Hardy, Montreal Heart Institute, 5000 Bélanger Est, Montréal, Québec, H1T 1C8 Canada. E-mail: jean-francois.hardy{at}umontreal.ca

Purpose: Continuous quality improvement is of increasing interest to anesthesiologists. Since surgeons are co-workers and important clients of anesthesiologists, the level of satisfaction of surgeons with anesthesia services should be explored to optimize quality. The purpose of this study was, first, to introduce the concept of surgeons as clients of anesthesiologists and second, to develop and test an instrument to measure surgeons' satisfaction, the Surgeon Satisfaction with Anesthesia Services (SSAS) scale.

Methods: A conceptual model of surgeon satisfaction with anesthesia services was created before the development of the SSAS scale. The scale, composed of socio-demographic, Likert-type and open-ended questions was sent to a sample of 250 surgeons selected randomly by the Collège des Médecins du Québec. Exploratory factorial analysis were performed on the results.

Results: A Cronbach's alpha of 0.84 was obtained for internal consistency. Exploratory factorial analysis yielded two subscale factors: a) clinical expertise and b) attitudes and behaviour. Global mean of surgeons'satisfaction was moderately high (3.11/4.0). Satisfaction was not related to sociodemographic variables. Very high scores were obtained for items related to clinical expertise. Items related to attitudes and behaviour obtained lower scores. A significant difference was obtained between both factors (t = -5.732, P = 0.0001).

Conclusion: The SSAS scale is a new instrument to evaluate surgeon satisfaction. Overall, surgeons seem satisfied with anesthesia services, but many areas of dissatisfaction persist. Further discussions with surgeons should be encouraged, in view of improving the perceptions of the quality of anesthesia services and interprofessional relationships.

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