EVALUATION OF PATIENT SATISFACTION OF ANAESTHETIC ASSESSMENT IN A DISTRICT HOSPITAL IN GHANA

Abstract

Background: Patient satisfaction about perioperative anesthesia assessment is an essential aspect of quality health-care management. Visiting the anesthesia clinic gives the patients an opportunity to discuss the choices of the anesthetic technique, methods for pain relief and the risks, in a calmer atmosphere than immediately before the operation. At the St. Elizabeth Catholic district hospital Hwidiem, Ghana, the service of anesthesia clinic has been introduced for the past three (3) years and yet there is no documented data indicating patient’s satisfaction with the anesthesia service. Objective: To evaluate inpatients satisfaction with the anesthesia service assessment quality in St. Elizabeth Catholic Hospital Hwidiem, Ghana. Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted at the St. Elizabeth Catholic hospital in Hwidiem; all patients who had elective surgery were included in the study within 24 hours after the operation. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data which consisted of patient socio-demography and satisfaction levels. All items in the structured questionnaire were scored on a four-point Likert scale which was entered and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23. Chi-square was used to analyze the relationship between overall satisfaction and the socio-demography of the patients using P-value 0.05 and 95% confident interval as the point limit. Results: One hundred and fifty-four 154 patients were recruited, and out of that, two patients refused to participate. The Mean age of patients recruited for this study was 30.03(10.71) years. The majority of the respondents (38.2%) were in the 29 to 38 age group. The overall patient satisfaction was 96.1%. On the aspect of anesthetists introducing themselves to patients before rendering the anesthesia service, 69.1% of the patients said the anesthetists did introduce themselves, 86.9% of them said they received adequate medical information about anesthesia from the anesthetists, 98.0% of them said the type of anesthetic plan was explained to them before surgery, and 81.0% said they were given the opportunity to ask questions about the anesthesia plans and received appropriate answers from the anesthetists. When asked whether or not they received enough education on the post-anesthesia care before the surgery, 86.9% responded that the anesthetists gave them adequate information about the postoperative anesthesia care especially on postoperative pain and analgesia and 56.5% said they were given adequate information on postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that patients going in for surgery are mostly satisfied with the anesthesia service in Ghana which has no link with the ethnicity, cultural or demography factors of the individual patient.