Patient's satisfaction with perioperative care: development, validation, and application of a questionnaire.
BACKGROUND
Measuring patient satisfaction after anaesthesia care is complex. The existing patient satisfaction questionnaires are limited and omit aspects of patient satisfaction, such as professional competence, information provision, service, and staff-patient relationship. The aim of our study was to develop a valid and reliable self-reported multidimensional questionnaire assessing patient satisfaction that included these issues.


METHODS
The development of the Leiden Perioperative care Patient Satisfaction questionnaire (LPPSq) was as follows: expert consultation, construction of the pilot questionnaire, pilot study, statistical analysis of the results of the pilot study (validity, reliability, and factor analysis), compilation of the definitive questionnaire, main study, and repeated statistical analysis (validity, reliability, and factor analysis). The overall patient satisfaction is expressed by the mean satisfaction score.


RESULTS
Three hundred and eighty-two patients consented to participate in the study; 80.4% of the patients (n=307) completed the questionnaire. The LPPSq isolated three dimensions: information (Cronbach's alpha=0.82), fear and concern (Cronbach's alpha=0.69), and staff-patient relationship (Cronbach's alpha=0.94). Patient satisfaction with perioperative care was not directly dependent on the outcomes of anaesthesia but how patients were approached and the amount of information they received. Age (P=0.001), gender (P=0.001), work situation (P=0.003), and specialty (P=0.017) were the characteristics most influencing patient satisfaction.


CONCLUSIONS
We developed the LPPSq questionnaire to measure patient satisfaction with perioperative care, of which anaesthesia care is an important element. In this study, information provision and the relationship between staff and patient were the major determinants of patient satisfaction.
Caljouw
M A A
MA
Operating Theatre Centre, Leiden University Medical Centre, Postal Zone J4-Q, PO Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands. m.a.a.caljouw@lumc.nl
van Beuzekom
M
M
Boer
F
F
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000758:Anesthesia / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D019990:Perioperative Care / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires