Quality of anesthesia care in a university hospital in Thailand

Background: Service quality is an important factor, which value differs between the patient’s satisfaction and expectation. The patient’s expectations are important factors for development. This service quality is a key part for improvement of our anesthesia service. In general, an improvement in service design and delivery helps to achieve higher levels of the service quality. Objective: To evaluate the level of patient’s expectation, patient’s satisfaction and the quality of anesthesia care in a university hospital in Thailand. Material and Method: The patient satisfaction questionnaire, developed from service quality criteria and patient satisfaction questionnaire (PSQ-18), was applied to evaluate 467 in patients 24-72 hours after anesthesia care. The patients’ expectation was also assessed. A proportional stratified randomized allocation was done. The questionnaire consisted of three dimensions; 1) structure: reliability & empathy, 2) process: assurance & tangible and 3) result: responsiveness. Data expectation and satisfaction were analyzed with mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA and normalized gain for the quality of anesthesia care. Results: The patient’s satisfaction in our anesthesia care is relatively high. The mean patient’s satisfaction score is significantly higher than the mean patient’s expectation in all dimensions. This study indicated that an anesthesia service in our hospital was a high quality service in the inpatient aspects. Conclusion: Patient’s expectation and satisfaction with anesthesia services in our setting was relatively high. Although most patients never had been any expectation regarding anesthesia service, the information and the involvement in decision-making were the most requirements of the adult inpatients.