title: Peri-operative care in adults with congenital heart disease: room for improvement in after care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patient satisfaction with care has received little attention within the field of congenital heart disease. Our objective was to examine patient satisfaction with the care received when undergoing open-heart surgery in order to identify the best and worst aspects of peri-operative care. Moreover, we examined whether having contact with a specialised nurse in addition to usual care is associated with higher patient satisfaction levels.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patient satisfaction was measured by the Satisfaction with Hospital Care Questionnaire, evaluating nine aspects of care by answering individual items and giving overall grades. A top 10 of the best and worst items was selected. Linear regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between having contact with a specialised nurse and patient satisfaction (9 grades), independent of patient characteristics--sex, age, educational level, and health status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were available for 75 patients. Grades ranged from 6.74 for "discharge and after care" to 8.18 for "medical care". In all, 21% of patients were dissatisfied with the clarity of the information about lifestyle adjustments given by the surgeon. However, patients who had contact with a specialised nurse were more satisfied with the provided information (B-coefficient is 0.497, p-value is 0.038), independent of patient characteristics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients were satisfied with the received care, although there is room for improvement, especially in discharge and after care and the clarity of the information provided by the surgeon. This gap in care can be compensated for by specialised nurses, as patients who were counselled by a specialised nurse were more satisfied with the provided information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dounya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schoormans
authors.forename: Ellen M A
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Smets
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zwart
authors.forename: Mirjam A G
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sprangers
authors.forename: Tonny H M
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Veelenturg
authors.forename: Bas A J M
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: de Mol
authors.forename: Mark G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Hazekamp
authors.forename: Dave R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Koolbergen
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sojak
authors.forename: Berto J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Bouma
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Groenink
authors.forename: Matthijs S M
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Boekholdt
authors.forename: Ad P C M
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Backx
authors.forename: Barbara J M
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Mulder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000359:Aftercare / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D019990:Perioperative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires