Measurement of quality of recovery in 5672 patients after anaesthesia and surgery

Quality of recovery after an operation is an important dimension of the pat ient's experience and may be related to the quality of anaesthesia care. Sa tisfaction with anaesthesia is a vital component of quality care but diffic ult to measure. We examined our database of 5672 adult patients to determin e if quality of recovery is associated with satisfaction with anaesthesia a nd to identify the perioperative factors that might influence both these ou tcome measures. We found that a nine-item quality of recovery score ("QoR S core") was related to satisfaction with anaesthesia (P<0.005): the overall level of satisfaction was high (97.2%; median QoR Score 16); 106 patients ( 2.1%; median QoR Score 14) were "somewhat dissatisfied" and 32 patients (0. 6%; median QoR Score 13) were "dissatisfied" with their anaethesia care. Pa tients who experienced any of a number of perioperative complications had l ower QoR Scores (P<0.0005). We have further demonstrated the validity and c linical utility of the QoR Score, and in particular, its relationship to pa tient satisfaction in adult surgical patients.