• H C Jeske, W Lederer, I Lorenz, C Kolbitsch, J Margreiter, J Kinzl, and A Benzer.
• Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
• Anesth. Analg. 2001 Nov 1;93(5):1262-4.

UnlabelledDespite their contribution to overall perioperative treatment of patients, anesthesiologists often remain in anonymity. We evaluated the impact of business cards on physician recognition after general anesthesia. Using a questionnaire, 441 patients were interviewed for recall of the anesthesiologist's name, the surgeon's name, and their overall satisfaction with anesthetic care 6 wk after undergoing surgery during general anesthesia. Of these patients, 155 had and 137 had not randomly received a business card during the preoperative visit, with another 149 patients serving as a control group. Business card recipients responded significantly more frequently than did nonrecipients or patients from the control group (65.8% vs 54.7% vs 53%), with recall of the anesthesiologist's name being significantly more frequent in the Business Card Recipient group (51.5% vs 14.3% vs 11.4%). Patient satisfaction with anesthetic care and recall of the surgeon's name were similar in all groups. The use of a simple tool such as a business card can indeed produce a measurable positive change in physician recognition on the part of the patient.ImplicationsAnesthesiologists often remain anonymous in everyday clinical practice. Handing a business card to the patient during the preoperative visit increased the postoperative recall of the anesthesiologist's name from 11% to 51%.

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