An evaluation of postoperative epidural analgesia in acute pain service in an Indian cancer hospital (a preliminary experience of patient satisfaction survey)

Summary 

Quality improvement approaches have been used to evaluate pain management. The purpose of this study was two-fold: to obtain a baseline data of incidence of severity of pain and patient's level of satisfaction during postoperative period and also to evaluate the changes over time on pain severity, in pain interference with function, patient satisfaction, and time required to deliver the analgesics after implementation of pain protocols. Two hundred patients were administered a questionnaire adapted from American Pain Society's patient outcome questionnaire in a two-phased manner. One hundred patients were included in the survey during January 2004 and a year later a similar cohort of 100 were administered the same questionnaire to evaluate for changes in quality of postoperative management over time. This self-report survey found a significantly high patient satisfaction in the setting of significant postoperative pain. There is a statistically significant reduction in the severity of ‘average pain’ after implementation of pain protocols, however, it did not translate into improvement in the patient satisfaction. The issue of patient satisfaction is complex and needs a systematic program recommended by American Pain society's quality improvement guidelines.

Keywords: Postoperative, Acute pain, Epidural analgesia, Patient satisfaction, Survey