title: The impact of business cards on physician recognition after general anesthesia.
abstract: Despite their contribution to overall perioperative treatment of patients, anesthesiologists often remain in anonymity. We evaluated the impact of business cards on physician recognition after general anesthesia. Using a questionnaire, 441 patients were interviewed for recall of the anesthesiologist's name, the surgeon's name, and their overall satisfaction with anesthetic care 6 wk after undergoing surgery during general anesthesia. Of these patients, 155 had and 137 had not randomly received a business card during the preoperative visit, with another 149 patients serving as a control group. Business card recipients responded significantly more frequently than did nonrecipients or patients from the control group (65.8% vs 54.7% vs 53%), with recall of the anesthesiologist's name being significantly more frequent in the Business Card Recipient group (51.5% vs 14.3% vs 11.4%). Patient satisfaction with anesthetic care and recall of the surgeon's name were similar in all groups. The use of a simple tool such as a business card can indeed produce a measurable positive change in physician recognition on the part of the patient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anesthesiologists often remain anonymous in everyday clinical practice. Handing a business card to the patient during the preoperative visit increased the postoperative recall of the anesthesiologist's name from 11% to 51%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Jeske
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lederer
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kolbitsch
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Margreiter
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kinzl
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Benzer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D000776:Anesthesiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011446:Prospective Studies; D017010:Reminder Systems; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires