A Comparison of face-to-face, brochure- And video-assisted anesthesia interviews: a qualitative randomized survey study

BACKGROUND: Previous studies showed mixed results for patient satisfaction by supplementing the preanesthetic assessment with written or audio-visual materials. We hypothesize that an audio-visual aid or a brochure in addition to face-to-face interview, leads to improved patient satisfaction and shortens the preanesthetic assessment duration. METHODS: We randomly assigned 1051 patients scheduled for preanesthetic assessment to three different groups: face-to-face preanesthetic interview alone (group 1), videos before the interview (group 2), and brochure before the interview (group 3). all patients were asked to complete a postinterview questionnaire assessing patient satisfaction, knowledge gain, prior experience with anesthesia, and quality of supplementary media. RESULTS: the use of additional materials immediately before the preanesthetic interview did increase the overall patient satisfaction (F_{(2, 1003)} = 3.10, P<0.05, ƞ²=0.006) but not the interview satisfaction (F_{(2, 1011)} = 0.756, P>0.05) nor information gain (procedure explanations F_{(2, 987)} = 0.400, P>0.05) or quality of answered questions (F_{(2, 1029)} = 0.769, P>0.05). a statistically significant effect on interview satisfaction (F_(13,996) = 5.15, P<0.01., ƞ²=0.063), overall satisfaction (F_(13,988) = 4.25, P<0.01., ƞ²=0.053) and given explanations (F_{(13, 972)} = 3.132, P<0.001, ƞ²=0.04) was associated with the explanation of different anesthetic techniques by the provider. No differences of response quality between the anesthesiologists was found (F_{(13, 1014)} = 1.494, P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: additional information imparted in the form of an educational brochure or videos immediately before the preanesthetic assessment and interview does not lead to higher patient satisfaction.