Original contributionPatient satisfaction following day surgery☆
Introduction
Day surgery accounts for more than 50% of all elective surgery performed in many countries in North America, Europe, and Oceania [1]. Clinical, economic, and social advantages [2] associated with excellent safety and low morbidity rates [3], [4] have made day surgery popular in many countries. High levels of patient satisfaction have been achieved [5], [6], even when frequent and uncomfortable post-discharge symptoms were found [7], [8]. The aim of the present study was to prospectively assess patient satisfaction rates following day surgery: at the time of discharge and 30 days after surgery. A secondary goal was to identify any possible predictive factors of patient satisfaction.
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Materials and methods
After receiving approval by the Hospital Geral Santo António Institutional Ethics Committee, we performed a prospective, observational study at the Day Surgery Unit (DSU) of Hospital Geral Santo António, Porto, Portugal, from December 2004 to March 2005. Written and verbal informed consent was obtained from all patients. Patients had to be over 15 years of age. Assessment was undertaken using anonymous questionnaires filled in by an interviewer who was a medical student. No health care
Results
A total of 251 consecutive patients who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study. Patients were 43 ± 15 years old and 56.6% were women. All of the enrolled patients participated in the first interview. Demographic data are shown in Table 1. At 30 days after surgery, 30 patients (12%) could not be contacted by telephone. Anesthesia time was 51.6 ± 30.2 minutes and ranged from 5 to 185 minutes. Almost 60% of the patients had no more than 4 years of schooling.
For 84.1% (n = 221) of
Discussion
Our study found that over 95% of patients had some degree of satisfaction after surgery both at discharge and at 30 days (100% and 96.8% of pts, respectively). Similar studies have reported slightly lower levels of satisfaction. Bain et al. found an overall satisfaction rate of 85% among 3,438 day surgery patients in a multicentric Scottish survey [5]. Beverly Philip evaluated overall satisfaction in a questionnaire returned by 1,511 patients, in which 97% would choose day surgery again [6].
Our
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Dr. Pedro Amorim for his encouragement and helpful suggestions in the preparation of the present manuscript.
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