LAUSR

BACKGROUND Previous studies showed mixed results for patient satisfaction by supplementing the pre-anesthetic assessment with written or audio-visual materials. We hypothesize that an audio-visual aid or a brochure in addition to face-to-face interview, leads to improved patient satisfaction and shortens the pre-anesthetic assessment duration. METHODS We randomly assigned 1051 patients scheduled for pre-anesthetic assessment to three different groups: face-to-face pre-anesthetic interview alone (Group 1), videos before the interview (Group 2), and brochure before the interview (Group 3). All patients were asked to complete a post-interview questionnaire assessing patient satisfaction, knowledge gain, prior experience with anesthesia, and quality of supplementary media. RESULTS The use of additional materials immediately before the pre-anesthetic interview did increase the overall patient satisfaction (F(2, 1003) = 3.10, p <0 .05, ƞ² = 0.006) but not the interview satisfaction (F(2, 1011) = 0.756, p >0 .05) nor information gain (procedure explanations F(2, 987) = 0.400, p > 0.05) or quality of answered questions (F(2, 1029) = 0.769, p > 0.05). A statistically significant effect on interview satisfaction (F(13,996) = 5.15, p < 0.01., ƞ² = 0.063), overall satisfaction (F(13,988) = 4.25, p < 0.01., ƞ² = 0.053) and given explanations (F(13, 972) = 3.132, p < 0.001, ƞ² = 0.04) was associated with the explanation of different anesthetic techniques by the provider. No differences of response quality between the anesthesiologists was found (F(13, 1014) = 1.494, p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Additional information imparted in the form of an educational brochure or videos immediately before the pre-anesthetic assessment and interview does not lead to higher patient satisfaction.