ASSESSMENT OF POSTOPERATIVE PAIN MANAGEMENT - PATIENT SATISFACTION AND PERCEIVED HELPFULNESS

Objective: Increasing attention has been given to the assessment of pa tient satisfaction as a way to monitor quality of care in hospital set tings. Postoperative patient satisfaction has been thought to be relat ed to level of pain intensity, expectations of outcome, perceived conc ern by the staff, and helpfulness of treatments. The aim of this study is to develop a simple, reliable measure to assess pain and satisfact ion in postsurgical patients and to examine factors related to patient satisfaction. Design: A satisfaction questionnaire was developed for this study and administered to 119 patients who had undergone a major orthopedic surgical procedure. The majority of the patients were diagn osed with osteoarthritis and reported moderate to severe preoperative pain. The 13-item measure was found to be reliable (test-retest r = .8 6; interexaminer r = .98), valid (exploratory factor analyses; interco rrelations), and easy to administer. Results: Results showed that the majority of the patients were satisfied with their care (91%), postope rative pain intensity (94%), and the way they were treated by the phys icians and nurses (98%). Patients with low postoperative pain ratings who perceived that the physicians and nurses showed concern with how m uch pain they were feeling reported greatest satisfaction with their c are (p < .001). In general, lower postoperative pain ratings were the best predictors of satisfaction and helpfulness of treatment. Preopera tive pain status, expected level of postoperative pain, and time waiti ng for pain medication after a request was made were not significantly correlated with ratings of postoperative pain or satisfaction. Conclu sions: These results highlight the important influence of adequate tre atment of postoperative pain and perceived concern by the hospital sta ff on patient satisfaction.