Auditing patient experience and satisfaction with neurosurgical care: results of a questionnaire survey

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the current level of patient satisfaction with neurosurgical services from the time of initial referral to hospital discharge. The survey was camed out by a self-administered postal questionnaire survey from the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK. The participants were 364 patients discharged from the unit within one calendar year. The main outcome measures were level of satisfaction with various aspects of care, as measured by fixed response and free text style questions. Most patients are happy with the waiting time to see a neurosurgeon and the wait for subsequent admission acceptable, but many would have preferred it to be shorter. Twenty-seven had their original admission date cancelled, but most were happy with the explanation offered. Weaknesses in the management of outpatient clinics were highlighted, 35% of patients waiting more than half an hour to be seen. The great majority were happy with various aspects of communication with the neurosurgical team. Few patients were given the opportunity to follow up their visit with literature provided or a visit to a specialist nurse (17 and 9%, respectively). However, both were considered very useful, in particular, 93% highly valued a meeting with the specialist nurse. There was a dichotomy of opinion over the course of the inpatient stay. While most aspects of care received 70- 80% satisfaction, the management of discharge received the most criticism. This was thought to represent a pooling of resources around the most needy patients. The majority of patients were discharged home (76%), only a third feeling that staff did everything possible to help this process. Very few received printed information. Again, those who had seen the specialty nurse had much higher levels of satisfaction. Patient satisfaction audit gives useful data on patients' perception and satisfaction with care that may not be apparent on more traditional audit measures such as length of stay, which focus more on a unit's efficiency. This study shows generally high levels of patient satisfaction with neurosurgical practice but highlights areas needing attention and expansion, such as access to a specialist nurse and relevant literature. Dissatisfaction with various administrative arrangements are clearly shown and provide an opportunity for patient centred improvements.