[Patient safety and satisfaction with anesthesia in 7 Spanish National Health Service Hospitals]

[Quality in the anesthesia department of San Cecilio Hospital from the professionals' perspective]

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the quality of the services provided by the anaesthesia department of the San Cecilio Clinical University Hospital, from the health professionals' point of view.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Location: Andalusia.

PARTICIPANTS

134 health professionals in contact with the hospital anaesthesia department. Tool: self-administered questionnaire, measuring: accessibility, personal treatment, comfort, scientific and technical quality (scale 1 to 5), overall satisfaction (scale 0 to 10), and suggestions for improvement. A descriptive statistical and correlation analysis were performed, including mean differences (by sex, frequency of contact with the anaesthesia department, and unit), as well as a regression model.

RESULTS

The quality of personal treatment received a mean of 4.2 points (SD 0.651), the scientific and technical quality 4.00 points (SD 0.532), accessibility 3.3 (SD 0.795), professional comfort 3.30 (SD 0.988), and patient comfort 2.62 points (SD 1.051). Overall satisfaction obtained a mean of 7.1 points (0 to 10 scale). Women and professionals working in units with less than 10 people had a better general evaluation of the anaesthesia department. The worse perspective was that of staff with daily contact with the anaesthesia department. Among the suggestions for improvement there were: Reducing waiting lists, creating special rooms to give information to families, improving working conditions, training and work satisfaction for staff, and achieving better communication and collaboration between health professionals.

CONCLUSIONS

The internal evaluation shows the need for training strategies and organisational interventions in the anaesthesia department, in order to achieve a better quality and satisfaction for both professionals and patients.