Assessment of patients’ satisfaction with flexible bronchoscopy: Initial Egyptian experience

Abstract

IntroductionData regarding the patients’ satisfaction with flexible bronchoscopy (FB) in our country, which is the major driving force in defining our practice, are lacking and have not been studied. We aimed to assess our patients’ satisfaction with FB.Materials and methodsProspective administration of a questionnaire assessing patients’ evaluations of various aspects of their bronchoscopy experience, overall satisfaction, tolerance and willingness to return for another FB was carried out with inclusion of 115 patients in the analysis.ResultsThe pre-FB and final post-FB information were positively rated in 93.9 and 89.6% of patients, respectively. The nursing attitudes towards patients before, during and after FB were positive in 98, 98 and 95% of patients, respectively, whereas the doctors’ attitude before, during and after FB was positive in 99, 100 and 98% of patients, respectively. Patients’ tolerance to examination on a 10-cm visual analogue scale was 7.22. The overall positive patient satisfaction with FB was 89.6%, but only 25.2% of patients would (definitely or probably) return for repeat FB. Stepwise logistic multiregression analysis showed that both (very good) final information and (very good) doctor’s attitude after the procedure are the most sensitive discriminators for prediction of a patient with maximum satisfaction (P<0.0001). Scope insertion through tracheostomy and tolerance to the examination by visual analogue scale were significant predictors associated with a likelihood of definitely returning for a repeat FB if needed.ConclusionOur results show that, although the majority of studied patients were satisfied with different aspects of their FB examination, only a minority would repeat this experience if needed. Egypt J Broncho 2013 7:71–77