E-33 | What Patients Hear: Effect of Cardiac Catheterization Lab Conversations on Patient Experience

Abstract

Patients’ perceptions of their care while in the cardiac catheterization laboratory can be affected by multiple variables. In academic labs, conversations occur during the case include the attending directing the trainee. The effect of these conversations on patient experience is not well understood. In this quality improvement study, 50 consecutive outpatients (4 different attendings, 6 fellows) who had undergone right heart catheterization, coronary angiography, or percutaneous coronary intervention between October 2022-January 2023 were interviewed by phone within a week of their procedure. A standardized questionnaire was used with a rating scale of 1-5 to assess much they remembered from the procedure and their overall perception of the professional environment in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. 84.0% of patients (n=42) recalled some or all conversations during the procedure, and of these patients, 57.0% (n=24) reported hearing conversations among the physicians. 1 patient reported that these conversations negatively affected them, and the remaining 23 patients reported that these conversations either reassured them (n=10) or did not affect them at all (n=13). 88.0% gave the highest score to the professional environment of the lab. There was no statistically significant difference in age or amount of sedation on the degree of recall. Despite moderate sedation, a majority of patients in an academic cardiac catheterization laboratory recalled conversations during the procedure. Awareness is important so that the training component of the case does not affect patient experience.