A study on patient satisfaction after anaesthesia and interventions to improve satisfaction in a Tertiary care Hospital.

Recruiting

Conditions: Medical and Surgical,

Registration Number: CTRI/2024/01/061379

Lead Sponsor: Believers Church Medical College Hospital

Brief Summary: Over the last few years, patient satisfaction has gained importance as a meaningful and essential source of information for identifying gaps in healthcare and bringing about changes, to improve the quality of care administered in hospitals. Anaesthetists are actively involved in providing peri-operative care to patients undergoing surgery. Factors which have been reported to affect patient satisfaction concerning anaesthesia services are; interaction between patient and anaesthetist, peri-operative anaesthetic management and postoperative follow-up.

We conducted a pilot study on 110 patients to assess their satisfaction with the anaesthetic services in our hospital. Patients were administered a 12-point Bauer satisfaction questionnaire (both in English and Malayalam) by a trained junior doctor on their first postoperative day. We found thirst (12/110, 11%) and pain at the surgical site (10/110, 9%) were the most common anaesthesia-related discomfort.

We plan to take include a larger cohort as the Control arm to assess satisfaction.

Following this, we plan to start interventions targeting postoperative thirst and pain as follows for one month. This includes:

1. Reducing the preoperative fasting periods by asking patients to drink 200 ml of water at 6 am.

2. Encouraging patients to use ice chips in the postoperative period.

3. Six hourly assessments of pain using VAS pain scores on the first postoperative day and appropriate management by the concerned anaesthesiologist if VAS scores more than 4.

4. Setting up of acute pain services to follow up patients undergoing major surgeries.

5. Educational intervention in the form of lectures, bedside discussions and visual reminders (posters, computer screensavers) in the postoperative bay.

Once this intervention is in place, we will do a re-audit to evaluate satisfaction.

Rationale

Detailed Description: Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: Open to Recruitment

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 800

Inclusion Criteria

All adult patients undergoing elective, inpatient non-cardiac surgeries, ASA I-III, expected post-operative duration of stay > 24 hours.

Exclusion Criteria

Patients shifted post-operatively to ICU and HDU, discharged on the same day, delirious, repeat surgery.

Study & Design

Study Type: Interventional

Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
1. To investigate the areas of dissatisfaction & anaesthesia related discomfort among patients undergoing elective non-cardiac surgeries	Baseline satisfaction survey 2 months \| Intervention for pain & thirst 2 months \| Postintervention satisfaction survey 2 months
2. To study the efficacy of a multimodal intervention strategy to improve patient satisfaction for two topmost reasons for dissatisfaction, namely postoperative pain & thirst.	Baseline satisfaction survey 2 months \| Intervention for pain & thirst 2 months \| Postintervention satisfaction survey 2 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
To assess risk factors for dissatisfaction among patients undergoing elective non-cardiac surgeries	Baseline satisfaction survey 2 months

Trial Locations

Locations (1): Believers Church Medical College Hospital
🇮🇳
Pathanamthitta, KERALA, India
Believers Church Medical College Hospital
🇮🇳Pathanamthitta, KERALA, India
Dr Gincy Ann Lukachan
Principal investigator
9447475818
gincy.luk@gmail.com