Development of a measure of patient satisfaction with monitored anesthesia care: the Iowa Satisfaction with Anesthesia Scale

Abstract

Background: The authors describe development of the Iowa Satisfaction with Anesthesia Scale (ISAS) for monitored anesthesia care (MAC). Patients complete the self-administered written questionnaire before discharge from the hospital. The authors designed the ISAS to measure satisfaction with MAC itself, not the perioperative experience. Patients respond to eleven statements (e.g., "I felt pain") by placing a mark along a six-choice vertical response column (e.g., "Disagree moderately") below each statement. The mean of their responses to each of the 11 statements gives a single number, which is a quantitative measure of a patient's satisfaction with their MAC.

Methods: Adult, English-speaking patients completed the questionnaires following admission to a phase II postanesthesia 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 (r2 = 0.23) and with responses to the question "I was satisfied with my anesthetic care" (Kendall's tau = +0.41). Scores on initial and repeat questionnaires were positively correlated (r2 = 0.74). Scores on initial questionnaires and those completed within 4.4 +/- 1.7 days postoperatively were positively correlated (r2 = 0.76).

Conclusions: The authors have developed and tested an internally consistent, reliable, and valid measure of patient satisfaction with MAC.