ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Healthcare quality can be improved by avoiding patient discomforts and customizing care to meet the needs of the patient. Therefore, the goal of this study was to quantify patients' discomfort for postoperative anesthesia outcomes for healthcare quality improvement. METHODS: One hundred orthopedic surgical patients were asked to tell possible undesirable postoperative outcomes preoperatively. In addition, they were also asked to tell undesirable postoperative outcomes from their most undesirable to least undesirable outcomes that they have experienced postoperatively. RESULTS: Patients expressed the following undesirable outcomes from most frequent to least frequent (in order); incisional pain, nausea/vomiting, shivering, headache, dizziness, sore throat, residual weakness, generalized myalgia, and somnolence. However, the severity of the symptoms were in the following order; nausea/vomiting, incisional pain, headache, dizziness, shivering, generalized myalgia residual weakness, sore throat, and somnolence. CONCLUSIONS: Although there is variability in how patients expressed postoperative outcomes, anesthesiologists can improve the quality of anesthesia by designing anesthesia regimens and methods that most closely meet each individual patient's preferences.