Positive perceptions on safety and satisfaction during a patient-centered timeout before peripheral nerve blockade

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Patient Safety
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Regional anesthesia is a common procedure for orthopedic surgery.
• Patient perception and satisfaction are crucial components of perioperative care.
• Preprocedural verification processes, like the anesthetic timeout, are standard but their impact on patient psychometric outcomes requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric outcomes of patients undergoing regional anesthesia.
• To assess patient perceptions of safety, confidence, anxiety, and positive sentiments during a preprocedural timeout.
• To determine the correlation between these perceptions and perioperative pain and satisfaction.

Main Methods:

• A postoperative survey was administered to patients undergoing peripheral nerve blockade for elective orthopedic surgery.
• Numeric rating scales measured patient perceptions of safety, confidence, anxiety, and positive sentiments during the block timeout.
• Logistic regression models analyzed the relationship between these perceptions and perioperative pain and satisfaction.

Main Results:

• Over 90% of the 175 participating patients strongly agreed they felt safe, confident, relaxed, and positive about the timeout.
• Strong positive perceptions during the timeout were significantly associated with lower reported perioperative pain.
• Enhanced feelings of safety and confidence correlated with higher overall patient satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• A patient-centered preprocedural timeout significantly enhances patient confidence and safety perceptions in regional anesthesia.
• Positive patient attitudes fostered by the timeout process are linked to a superior perioperative experience.
• Implementing and optimizing preprocedural timeouts can improve patient satisfaction and potentially reduce pain.