Patient's satisfaction with perioperative care: development, validation, and application of a questionnaire

Background. Measuring patient satisfaction after anaesthesia care is complex. The existing patient satisfaction questionnaires are limited and omit aspects of patient satisfaction, such as professional competence, information provision, service, and staff-patient relationship. The aim of our study was to develop a valid and reliable self-reported multidimensional questionnaire assessing patient satisfaction that included these issues. Methods. The development of the Leiden Perioperative care Patient Satisfaction questionnaire (LPPSq) was as follows: expert consultation, construction of the pilot questionnaire, pilot study, statistical analysis of the results of the pilot study (validity, reliability, and factor analysis), compilation of the definitive questionnaire, main study, and repeated statistical analysis (validity, reliability, and factor analysis). The overall patient satisfaction is expressed by the mean satisfaction score. Results. Three hundred and eighty-two patients consented to participate in the study; 80.4% of the patients (n=307) completed the questionnaire. The LPPSq isolated three dimensions: information (Cronbach's alpha=0.82), fear and concern (Cronbach's alpha=0.69), and staff-patient relationship (Cronbach's alpha=0.94). Patient satisfaction with perioperative care was not directly dependent on the outcomes of anaesthesia but how patients were approached and the amount of information they received. Age (P=0.001), gender (P=0.001), work situation (P=0.003), and specialty (P=0.017) were the characteristics most influencing patient satisfaction. Conclusions. We developed the LPPSq questionnaire to measure patient satisfaction with perioperative care, of which anaesthesia care is an important element. In this study, information provision and the relationship between staff and patient were the major determinants of patient satisfaction.