title: Outpatient outcomes and satisfaction in pediatric population: data from the postoperative phone call.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality and patient/parent satisfaction are goals for pediatric perioperative services. As part of the implementation of our operating room electronic medical record (EMR), a postoperative phone call questionnaire was developed to assess patients discharged after outpatient surgery. The goal of this initiative was to determine the rate of common postoperative complications and understand reasons for patient/parent dissatisfaction.
  
  
  METHODS
  Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for chart review. The postoperative phone call survey was attempted by our postanesthesia care unit nursing staff on all pediatric outpatients. The call was attempted for 3 days. From 2009 to 2013, more than 37 000 phone records existed in our EMR, Epic Optime (Epic Systems, Verona, WI). These data were extracted to a business intelligence (BI) program, QlikView (Qliktech, Radnor, PA, USA). A BI dashboard was constructed to obtain phone call results for any given time frame from monthly to spanning several years. Complications were logged as 4-point severity rating scales (none, mild, moderate, severe) with descriptions for each level. The BI dashboard calculated the overall and rates by severity for the following: (i) nausea, (ii) vomiting, (iii) pain, (iv) bleeding, (v) hoarseness, and (vi) difficulty eating.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 42 688 outpatient cases, 37 620 postoperative phone calls were completed for an overall response rate of 88%. Pain, at 11.1%, was the highest reported postoperative complication. The rate of dissatisfaction was reported to be 0.31%. Most patients reporting dissatisfaction (62%) did not report any complications. Contingency coefficient showed that there was little relationship between satisfaction and presence of complications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A postoperative phone survey is cost-effective and appreciated by patients. We found that satisfaction with our perioperative services was not related to the rates of reported complications. Although reducing complications is of utmost importance, improvements in wait times and other operational issues would yield greater improvements in satisfaction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE, USA.
authors.forename: B Randall
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Brenn
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE, USA.
authors.forename: Dinesh K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Choudhry
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE, USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sacks
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010290:Parents; D063868:Patient Outcome Assessment; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: outpatient outcomes; pediatric anesthesia; postoperative complications; postoperative phone call; satisfaction