Paediatric anaesthesia
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Nov 2007
Comparative StudyA comparison of parents and pediatric anesthesiologists' preferences for attributes of child daycase surgery: a discrete choice experiment.
Currently, there is little evidence relating to which attributes of pediatric daycase surgery are most important to parents; therefore, it is difficult for policy-makers in the UK to incorporate parents' preferences into pediatric daycase service provision. Additionally, few studies have considered anesthesiologists' preferences in this area. Parents and anesthesiologists' preferences for perioperative care of children undergoing daycase surgery may differ and this could affect levels of satisfaction with service provision. This study aimed to elicit and compare the relative importance of attributes of pediatric daycase surgery provision to parents and anesthesiologists using an established stated preference method, the discrete choice experiment. The attributes considered were: parental involvement in medical decision making; parental presence at induction of anaesthesia; quality of recovery from anaesthesia; staff attitude; postoperative pain and cost to the parents. ⋯ Parents and anesthesiologists had a significantly different order of priorities for service attributes.