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Patients' perceptions of cardiac anesthesia services: a pilot study

[Les perceptions de patients sur l'anesthésie cardiaque : une étude pilote]

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

^* From the Faculty of Nursing and
the Department Of Anesthesiology University of Montreal,
the Department Of Biostatistics, Montreal Heart Institute, and
the Department Of Psychology Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Dr. Sylvie Le May, Faculty of Nursing, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3J7, Canada. Phone: 514-343-6384; Fax: 514-343-2306; E-mail: sylvie.lemay{at}umontreal.ca

Purpose: To develop an instrument to measure patients' perceptions of the services provided by anesthesiologists, an important indicator of quality for which little information is available.

Methods: The scale of patients' perceptions of cardiac anesthesia services (SOPPCAS) is composed of 17 Likert-type and sociodemographic questions. Data collection was conducted on T-1 (fourth postoperative day) and T-2 (15 days postoperatively). In addition, we employed the Marlow-Crowne scale and a short form of the Psychological Symptoms Index to verify the influence of social desirability and psychological distress respectively. Data analysis included a principal component analysis (PCA).

Results: One hundred seventy patients answered the questionnaires at T-1 and 133 patients at T-2. Cronbach alpha of the SOPPCAS was 0.58. PCA revealed four perioperative factors: patient/anesthesiologist interactions, preoccupations related to anesthesia, experience with anesthesia and pain management. Global mean satisfaction was 4.45 ± 0.64 (maximum score 6.0). Main items related to satisfaction were: satisfaction with premedication, empathy from anesthesiologists, pain management. Main items related to dissatisfaction were: lack of information on blood transfusion and recall of endotracheal intubation. A score of 14/20 was obtained for social desirability. Social desirability did not influence the construct of the SOPPCAS.

Conclusion: We developed, using rigorous methods, an instrument to measure patients' perceptions of the quality of cardiac anesthesia services. Global mean satisfaction with anesthesia services was moderately high contrary to previous studies where it was high. Finally, the SOPPCAS should allow anesthesiologists to improve the quality of the care they provide.