Evaluating patient preparedness for cataract surgery and satisfaction with preoperative care

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate preoperative preparedness and patient satisfaction after implementation of the Cataract Screening Preprocedural Questionnaire (CSPQ) at Hamilton Regional Eye Institute. DESIGN: Single-centred, prospective, cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS: One-hundred fifty-one adult patients undergoing elective cataract surgery completed the CSPQ questionnaire. Based on the responses, patients were triaged to the preoperative anaesthesia clinic or booked directly for surgery. Outcome measures included anxiety level, delays or cancellations in surgery, preoperative blood pressure, glucose levels, and satisfaction with the quality of preoperative instructions provided. Results were compared between patients who attended and those who bypassed the preoperative anaesthesia clinic. RESULTS: Of the study population, 87 patients were female (57.6%) and the mean age was 72.0 ± 10.5 years. Only 11 patients (7.43%) were referred for preoperative consultation. Patients reported receiving preoperative instructions via handouts (94%) and verbally in combination with handouts (59.33%). Patients felt that adequate information was provided regarding preoperative medications (96.69%), eye drops (99.34%), fasting guidelines (98.68%), arrival time (99.34%), and instructions for accompaniment/drivers postoperatively (100%). All patients were compliant with the fasting guidelines. Patient satisfaction with the information received regarding cataract surgery and anaesthesia were 4.39 ± 0.88 and 3.80 ± 0.95, respectively. There was no difference in the anxiety level between patients who attended and those who bypassed the preoperative clinic (4.09 ± 2.92 and 5.18 ± 2.57, p = 0.14). There were no cancellations, delays, or immediate postoperative systemic complications. CONCLUSIONS: The CSPQ model can be effectively used to streamline the preoperative preparation of patients for cataract surgery while maintaining a high degree of patient satisfaction with the perioperative experience.