Patients' satisfaction with flexible bronchoscopy in a hospital-based community practice.
BACKGROUND
There are no data about patients' satisfaction with a first bronchoscopy in community practice.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to assess the satisfaction with flexible bronchoscopy and the willingness to return for the procedure if needed in hospital-based community practice.


METHODS
Prospective administration of a questionnaire before and after flexible bronchoscopy with inclusion of 126 patients in the analysis.


RESULTS
The reliability analysis demonstrated a good internal consistency of the questionnaire with a mean Cronbach α of 0.7 (range 0.63-0.76). Health status and overall satisfaction with bronchoscopy were reported as poor by 31 (25%) and 0 (0%) patients, fair by 34 (27%) and 3 (2%) patients, good by 47 (37%) and 51 (40%) patients and very good by 9 (7%) and 70 (56%) patients, respectively. Overall willingness to return for a flexible bronchoscopy if necessary was 98% (123/126). Transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) was the most often performed diagnostic procedure (74/126, 59%). Mean duration of the bronchoscopy in patients with and without TBNA was 30 and 19 min, respectively (p < 0.001). However, TBNA did not influence patient's satisfaction. Preprocedure anxiety was reported by 26 of 51 patients (51%) and 24 of these patients (92%) rated their anxiety as unjustified after the procedure.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall satisfaction and willingness to return for a flexible bronchoscopy in community practice are extremely high and these are independent of whether TBNA is undertaken or not.
Bernasconi
Maurizio
M
Pulmonary Medicine, University Hospital Basel, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland. BernasconiMa@uhbs.ch
Chhajed
Prashant N
PN
Müller
Patrick
P
Borer
Heinz
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001999:Bronchoscopy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011446:Prospective Studies