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Patient satisfaction with anesthesia care: information alone does not lead to improvement

[La satisfaction du patient face à l’anesthésie : l’information ne suffit pas à l’amélioration]

Thomas Heidegger, MD^*, Matthias Nuebling, PhD, Reinhard Germann, MD, Hans Borg, MD, Katrin Flückiger, MD, Trinidad Coi and Yvonne Husemann, LIC PHIL^¶

^* From the Department of Anaesthesiology, Cantonal Hospital, St. Gallen, Switzerland;
Empirical Consulting, Freiburg, Germany;
Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Landeskrankenhaus Feldkirch, Austria;
Department of Anaesthesiology, University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland;
^¶ Picker Institut, Zug, Switzerland.

Address correspondence to: Dr. Thomas Heidegger, Department of Anaesthesiology, Cantonal Hospital, St. Gallen, Rorschacherstrasse 95, 9007 St. Gallen, Switzerland. Phone: +41-71-494-1509; Fax: +41-71-494-2889; E-mail: thomas.heidegger{at}kssg.ch

Purpose: To evaluate if information campaigns and introduction of information leaflets lead to an improvement in patient satisfaction with anesthesia care.

Methods: In 2000, we carried out an assessment of patient satisfaction with anesthesia care. "Information/involvement in decision making" was identified as the worst problem area. The three hospitals involved in this study introduced strategies to improve this dimension of patient satisfaction by launching information campaigns, producing or improving information brochures (particularly in hospitals A and C), and by expanding the preanesthetic care unit (hospital B). In 2002, a second survey was carried out. Each of the hospitals sent questionnaires to 600 elective surgery patients after discharge. We compared the total problem scores (the percentage of patients who responded that a problem was present) and the problem scores for the dimension ‘information/involvement in decision making’ between 2000 and 2002.

Results: The total problem score (mean in %, 95% confidence interval) for all three hospitals together remained unchanged [19% (1)], as well as the problem scores for each hospital [hospital A 16% (1), hospital B 21% (1), hospital C 20% (1)]. The problem score for ‘information/involvement in decision making’ remained unchanged also: 31% (29–33) in 2000 compared to 28% (26–30) in 2002.

Conclusion: Information campaigns and the introduction of information leaflets alone do not improve patient satisfaction with anesthesia care.

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