Elective surgery during COVID-19 pandemic – patient’s perspective

• Published in: Polski przeglád chirurgiczny Vol. 94; no. 3; pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Bogacki, Paweł, Gach, Tomasz, Szura, Mirosław
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-01-2022
• ISSN: 0032-373X; 2299-2847
• DOI: 10.5604/01.3001.0015.5034

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered the way surgical units function. Many changes have been introduced to diminish the risk of viral transmission among patients and healthcare professionals. Much have been said about the burden of those changes on hospital employees in their daily struggle, but little has been published on the patient’s perspective.
Aim: The aim of this study is to determine patient’s perception of undergoing elective surgical procedure during COVID pandemic.
Materials and methods: We surveyed 285 consecutive patients that were admitted for elective surgery to the General Surgery Department of St John Grande’s Hospital in Krakow after the national COVID lock-down had been lifted. The survey focused on how patients see this situation and how it determined their health-related behaviors.
Results: A total of 285 consecutive patients admitted to the Surgical Department for elective surgery between July 1st and August 1st were asked to fill out a survey on admission. As many as 252 fully filled out surveys were gathered. Thirty-three surveys were excluded from the study due to their incompletion. As many as 40% of the patients had their surgical plans altered in some way due to the pandemic. No fear or slight fear of the virus was declared by 88.8% of the patients. However, 54% feel less safe in the hospital than before the pandemic. Median evaluation of preparation of the hospital was 9 out of 10, average score being 8.72. The majority of the patients have no opinion on whether they should be tested for coronavirus before admission. Almost no one (3.2%) is willing to pay for a commercial test prior to admission, but the majority (76.6%) is willing to self-quarantine before surgery if needed. Detailed results of the survey are described in the manuscript.
Conclusions: The pandemic does not seem to have greatly influenced patients’ health-related behaviors. The general attitude towards the pandemic by patients is rather calm. Most of them feel less safe in the hospital than before the pandemic, but the level of fear is low. Very few resigned from surgery solely because of the pandemic.