Background:

There is limited research on how well anesthesiologists develop rapport with their patients. Anesthesiologist perception and interaction play important roles in overall patient experience and satisfaction. This study performed at UCLA Health is an adaptation from a prior study done at UC Irvine Health to assess if there are any correlating factors between an anesthesiologist’s rapport and patient satisfaction developed in the pre/post-operative period.

Objective:  

We seek to identify what factors contribute to patient-anesthesiologist rapport in the perioperative setting using a post-operative survey.

Methods:  

A 32 question patient survey focusing on physician rapport was developed as an adaptation from a previous University of California Irvine study [5]. Subjects aged 18-80 were consented in the outpatient preoperative area before their elective procedure. Within 24 hours of surgery completion, a research team member called the patient to administer the survey. A subset of questions (13/32) inquiring about satisfaction was combined to generate a patient rapport score out of 65 points. Additional questions with alternate wording for the rapport score questions were included to determine internal validity of the rapport score. The remaining questions assessed for patient demographics including age and education level, as well as postoperative outcomes including pain and nausea. Anesthesiologist information and patient demographics were additionally extracted from electronic medical records. Data collected was analyzed for correlations between rapport scores and anesthesiologist characteristics/actions.

Results:  

151 subjects across 53 anesthesiologists were recruited from  April 2022 to February 2023. 108 surveys were fully completed with a median (IQR) rapport score of 63 (61-65). Chronbach’s alpha for the rapport score was 0.9, when assessing using the alternate worded rapport items. Memory of anesthesiologist, surgical team rating, nursing staff rating, and nausea since surgery (p < 0.01)  were significantly correlated with anesthesiologist rapport. Pain since surgery (p=0.069)  was not significantly correlated. Data from anesthesiologists who performed at least 5 cases (n=6) were analyzed to determine which anesthesiologist-specific factors contributed to improved rapport. Anesthesiologist sex (p=0.083) and years of experience post-training (p=0.731) did not contribute to the rapport score.

Conclusions:  

We present a novel, internally validated evaluation tool for determining anesthesiologist-patient rapport. Our initial data indicate that anesthesiologist-specific factors such as sex and years of experience do not contribute to improved rapport. Rather, full care team interactions (including nursing and surgical staff) as well as post-operative experiences including postoperative nausea are correlated with increased rapport. We aim to use this internally validated tool on a larger patient population to further elucidate which factors contribute to perioperative rapport.