What do outpatients value most in their anesthesia care?
OBJECTIVE
To determine what outpatients ranked highest in their anesthesia care and whether anesthesiologists could predict that ranking.


METHODS
A 36 item mail-back questionnaire was administered post-operatively to 45 surgical outpatients and to 15 expert anesthesiologists. Respondents were asked to rank the three highest items from each of four lists of nine items representing pre-operative, intra-operative, pre-discharge and post-discharge outpatient anesthesia care.


RESULTS
Complete responses were obtained from 30 outpatients and all anesthesiologists. In each phase of their care (pre-operative, intra-operative, pre-discharge and post-discharge), outpatients ranked highest those elements representing information and communication. Physical conditions of care tend to be least valued. Although anesthesiologists were able to predict what patients valued in the pre and post-discharge phases of their anesthesia care (r = 0.85 and 0.91), they undervalued the importance to patients of communication and information in pre-operative and intra-operative care (r = -0.09 and .65).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results reinforce the value that patients place in adequate communication and provision of information in all phases of outpatient anesthesia care, a value that may be underappreciated by anesthesiologists.
Fung
D
D
Department of Health Administration, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. dfung@efni.com
Cohen
M
M
D000758:Anesthesia; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D010045:Outpatients; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires