Improving family experience through better communication for postoperative patients

Published Date: 10th January 2023

Publication Authors: Jayan N, Khirwadkar R

Background
It is with great stress and anxiety that relatives wait until they get some news about their loved ones being back from a surgical procedure [1]. We aimed to implement a system to improve patient and relative experience through a gesture of updating the relatives about the general condition of the patient following return to the recovery room after surgery. A patient survey was carried out to find out the effectiveness of this communication intervention in reducing the anxiety of family members.

Methods
Fifty patients scheduled for elective surgical procedures under general anaesthesia were included and given the option of having their relatives updated over phone about their general condition once they are back in the recovery room after surgery. Following admission to the recovery room post-procedure, a phone call was made by the anaesthetist to the designated relative to update them about the completion of the surgery and about their general condition. A patient feedback survey was designed to gauge the effectiveness of this new intervention. A follow-up telephone call was made to the patient by the anaesthetist on postoperative day 1 or beyond (following patient discharge).

Results
Response rate was 100%. All the participants replied that they were happy with the experience as the intervention reduced the anxiety of their relatives and recommended the practice to remain in place. We did not receive any further suggestions from any of the patients.

Discussion
Our survey results suggest that an in-person intervention to update families on the patient's postoperative status could be effective in reducing anxiety and improving the overall experience of surgical patients and their carers. We believe that surgeons would be better suited for this role as most of the relatives requested more details about the surgery and postoperative care. All our surveyed patients expressed their gratitude during our conversations during the feedback calls. We have already succeeded in implementing this new idea in our day-case unit. Some of our surgeons have already updated their practice following our recommendation. We are currently liaising with our patient experience department and operational managers to explore the option of implementing the practice throughout the Trust. Our project is not devoid of limitations because it was a single-centre survey with a small sample size; we did not use any tool to measure anxiety.

 

Jayan, N; Khirwadkar, R. (2023). Improving family experience through better communication for postoperative patients. Anaesthesia. 78(Suppl 1), p.59. [Online]. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/anae.15924 [Accessed 23 February 2023]

 

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