Study of patient satisfaction in anesthesia OPD: A study in Shaheed Ziaur Rahman medical college hospital, Bogura, Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Anesthesiologists play a significant role in perioperative medical care of the patients. In Anesthesia OPD, preanesthesia evaluation is done to assess patient’s medical condition before surgery and formulate anesthetic plan based on risk assessment and streamline the preoperative experience of patients. But the patient experience and satisfaction with such clinics has not been adequately studied in Bangladesh. Objective: The main objective of this study is to assess the satisfaction of patients who have availed services of preanesthesia evaluation, identify problems, and suggest measures to improve the services. Materials and Methods: We conducted this study at Anesthesia Out Patient Department by means of a questionnaire designed to assess patient satisfaction about preanesthetic evaluation services in Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital, Bogura, Bangladesh. A total of 100 adult patients were randomly selected to respond to a multiple item questionnaire. A database was created and analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Results: In this study, major reasons leading to dissatisfaction of patients were difficulty in locating Anesthesia OPD, delayed fitness, lack of information about purpose and prerequisites of Anesthesia visit by surgical faculty and lack of explanation of preanesthesia instructions. Also 40 % patients found that their privacy and confidentiality not maintained. Most of the patients were not satisfied by basic amenities in hospital. Conclusion: Patient satisfaction about Anesthesia OPD can be improved by measures taken in infrastructure, basic amenities, functioning of Anesthesiologists, counseling of patients and coordination with other departments.