Current understanding of the patient's attitude toward the anesthetist's role and practice in Israel: Effect of the patient's experience

Study Objective: To assess the patient's understanding and knowledge of the anesthesiologist's role and responsibilities in the operating room and in other areas of hospital activity, and to delineate the effect of previous anesthetic experience on this knowledge. Design: Prospective study consisting of standard preanesthetic interview and questionnaire survey. Setting: Preoperative anesthetic clinic in a large central private hospital in Israel. Patients: 295 adult patients who were seen in the preanesthetic clinic in a 4-week period in May, 2000. Interventions: After patients were checked for exclusion criteria and given a standard preanesthetic interview, all adult patients presenting to this clinic were asked to participate in the study and complete a questionnaire, which was later evaluated statistically. Results: A total of 295 patients (90% response rate) took part in the study. Two hundred (67.8%) patients had previous experience with anesthetics (Group A), and 95 (32.2%) patients presented for the first time for anesthesia (Group B). Ninety-five percent in Group A and 94.7% of Group B believed that the anesthesiologist is a doctor. Ninety-three percent of Group A and 90.5% of Group B answered that the anesthesiologist himself administered the anesthetic drugs. As to the responsibility for the patient's well-being during the operation and postoperatively, opinion was divided equally as to whether the surgeon or the anesthesiologist is responsible. The patients in both groups seemed to be well informed about the way anesthetic drugs act. Only 4% of patients of both groups knew about the anesthesiologist's other duties outside the operation room. Conclusion: If able to be extrapolated to all of Israel, our results show a high appreciation for the physician status of the anesthesia professional and role in safe recovery. Passive learning from a prior anesthetic experience did not appear to improve such appreciation.