Patient satisfaction and quality of recovery are important measures of quality. Whether, and to what extent, patient satisfaction is influenced by quality of recovery, however, is not clear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the additional influence of quality of recovery on total patient satisfaction with anaesthesia and surgery. In this prospective cohort study, we used a validated quality of recovery questionnaire and a multi-item patient satisfaction questionnaire. Patients completed the quality of recovery questionnaire pre-operatively and 24 h postoperatively. One to two weeks after discharge, a third quality of recovery questionnaire was sent out, together with the patient satisfaction questionnaire. If no response was received after 2 weeks, a reminder containing the quality of recovery and the satisfaction questionnaire were mailed. Seven hundred and thirty-four patients were consecutively assessed for eligibility. Five hundred and seventy-nine patients completed at least one questionnaire (recruitment rate 79%). Four hundred and sixty-seven patients (81%) completed all four questionnaires. The total satisfaction score was high, with a mean (SD) of 94.6 (10.7) on a 0-100 scale. Correlation analysis between quality of recovery and total patient satisfaction showed correlations of 0.2-0.3. Testing different aspects of quality of recovery in models already containing the significant factors of patient satisfaction did not improve the model fit markedly. We conclude that quality of recovery has only a marginal additional effect on total patient satisfaction with anaesthesia and surgery.

anaesthetists may not be aware of the problem, and suggest that it could be a potential risk to patients resulting in over treatment with longer wake-up times, possibly impacting length of stay, list turnover and unnecessary use of critical care beds.