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This evidence review aimed to conceptualize patient satisfaction with anesthesia care (PSAC), which has been linked to reimbursement, competency evaluations, and litigation; to describe factors affecting PSAC; and to develop provider recommendations to enhance PSAC. The search for systematic reviews, survey reports, qualitative studies, and consumer satisfaction reports within the last 20 years excluded pediatric and obstetric articles.
The search yielded 27 quantitative, 7 qualitative, and 9 consumer satisfaction articles. High levels of PSAC are reported using a variety of methods. Studies evaluating patient perioperative experiences document that fear and anxiety with prior patient experiences have an impact on anticipatory anxiety. Patients reported desiring positive experiences and emotional connections with anesthesia providers. Modifiable dissatisfiers included anxiety, inadequate explanation of anesthesia, postoperative pain and nausea or vomiting, long surgeries or wait times, and anesthesia complications. Besides providing preoperative information with reasonable expectations (eg, for nausea and vomiting) and treating discomfort, anesthetists must engage emotionally with patients. Measures of PSAC should include the emotional component of PSAC. Future research addressing patient experiences with differing anesthesia methods would be helpful for providers trying to understand and facilitate patient coping.
Keywords: Anesthesia care, patient satisfaction, perioperative, psychometric testing.
Nurse anesthetists provide anesthesia to millions of surgical patients annually. Typically, on patient transport to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU), anesthetists perform a cursory assessment of vital signs, physical status, and patient comfort before evaluating another patient and returning to the operating room. Because of rapid operating room turnover and short recovery room stays, insight into patient satisfaction with anesthesia care (PSAC) is often lost or not reliably evaluated. In some institutions, satisfaction with anesthesia care is included as part of the generic patient satisfaction surveys delivered to surgical patients 1 to 3 days after discharge. Anesthetists receive reports of patient dissatisfaction with anesthesia only in the event of negative feedback related to poor or catastrophic patient outcomes.
Much research related to PSAC documents satisfaction with postoperative physical outcomes (eg, pain, nausea).1 Patient satisfaction, however, also depends on patients' thoughts, feelings, and values.1 These factors are difficult to measure and may not be reflected in current practice indicators.
* Best Practice. Interactions with patients before anesthesia can be conducted in ways that offer them a sense of personal control while...