[Outpatient preoperative examination by the anesthesiologist. II. Patient satisfaction]

To determine patient satisfaction after the reorganisation of the preoperative screening.

General Hospital De Weezenlanden, Zwolle, The Netherlands.

Retrospective patient interview.

Before the reorganisation, the preoperative screening was performed clinically under the responsibility of the consultant surgeon. Thereafter it was performed in the outpatient department by the anaesthesiologist. Patients who had had two similar operations within two and a half years, one before and one after the reorganisation, were interviewed at home regarding the different methods of preoperative screening (n = 94).

The preoperative screening had a reassuring effect on patients. 72% considered preoperative anaesthesia information important. The number of hospital visits before the operation did not significantly increase after the screening was reorganised. There was little objection to attending the hospital for preoperative screening (12%). Most patients (60%) had no preference for the previous or the present method of screening. Patients who remembered the interview with the anaesthesiologist (56%) preferred the new method (score: 8.2 on a scale 0-10; score of the former method: 7.6; p < 0.01). A larger number of these had the opportunity to ask questions (p = 0.01) and more patients had received attention from the anaesthesiologist (p < 0.01). 75% of the patients had received sufficient preoperative anaesthesia information. 28% of the patients wanted to see the anaesthesiologist again after admission.

Preoperative screening reassures and informs the patient. The patients who could remember the interview with the anaesthesiologist preferred the preoperative screening in the outpatient department. A considerable number of the patients wanted to see the anaesthesiologist again after admission.