DEVELOPMENT OF A MEASURE OF PATIENT SATISFACTION WITH MONITORED ANESTHESIA CARE - THE IOWA SATISFACTION WITH ANESTHESIA SCALE

Background: The authors describe development of the Iowa Satisfaction with Anesthesia Scale (ISAS) for monitored anesthesia care (MAC). Pati ents complete the self-administered written questionnaire before disch arge from the hospital. The authors designed the ISAS to measure satis faction with MAC itself, not the perioperative experience. Patients re spond to eleven statements (eg., ''I felt pain'') by placing a mark al ong a six-choice vertical response column (e.g., ''Disagree moderately '') below each statement. The mean of their responses to each of the 1 1 statements gives a single number, which is a quantitative measure of a patient's satisfaction with their MAC. Methods: Adult, English-spea king patients completed the questionnaires following admission to a ph ase II postanesthe sia care unit after MAC. Results: Response rate for MAC was 92% (86 of 94 patients). Patients completed the questionnaire in 4.6 +/- 2.3 min. Internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha, equaled 0 .80. Patients' scores were positively correlated with those predicted by their anesthesia provider (r(2) = 0.23) and with responses to the q uestion ''I was satisfied with my anesthetic care'' (Kendall's tau = 0.41). Scores on initial and repeat questionnaires were positively cor related (r(2) = 0.74). Scores on initial questionnaires and those comp leted within 4.4 +/- 1.7 days postoperatively were positively correlat ed (r(2) = 0.76). Conclusions The authors have developed and tested an internally consistent, reliable, and valid measure of patient satisfa ction with MAC.