• An Teunkens, Kris Vanhaecht, Kristien Vermeulen, Steffen Fieuws, Marc Van de Velde, Steffen Rex, and Luk Bruyneel.
• Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, KU Leuven-University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Department of Anaesthesiology, University Hospitals of the KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: an.teunkens@uzleuven.be.
• J Clin Anesth. 2017 Dec 1; 43: 15-23.

Study ObjectiveTo evaluate patient satisfaction and patient reported anaesthesia related outcome parameters after outpatient surgery.DesignA three-year (2013-2016) observational study.SettingA surgical day care centre embedded in a tertiary care, university hospital.PatientsAdult Dutch-speaking patients who underwent surgery under general or regional anaesthesia on an outpatient basis (n=5424).InterventionsA questionnaire was developed to evaluate patients' satisfaction with care during their hospitalisation in the surgical day centre, as well as to assess their reports of anaesthesia related outcomes.MeasurementsVarious aspects of care were measured, including care by nurses, care by doctors, organisational and safety items. Variation in satisfaction and surgery and anaesthesia related outcomes as a function of different categories (gender, age, education, type of anaesthesia, discipline and era) were also investigated.Main ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis showed an excellent fit to the hypothesized factors of the survey. Satisfaction scores were very high for different aspects of care, resulting in 98% of patients being (very) satisfied (59.1% very satisfied, 38.9% satisfied). Male (p=0.0003), higher educated (p<0.0001) and older patients (p<0.0001) were more likely to be very satisfied. Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) were frequent (nausea: 13.9%, vomiting: 3.3%), and more present in female than in male patients (p<0.0001). Pain scores at the PACU differed among disciplines (p<0.0001) were higher in female patients compared to male patients (3.41% versus 2.54%, p<0.0001) and after general anaesthesia compared to regional anaesthesia (3.25% versus 0.39%, p<0.0001) and decreased with higher age (p=0.0001) and education level (p=0.0033).ConclusionsWhereas satisfaction with all aspects of care is generally high, the results regarding pain and PONV should inspire quality improvement initiatives. The questionnaire developed in this study can be a vehicle to assess and improve the quality of care in surgical day care centres.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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