Patients' perspectives and experiences of day case surgery.

This qualitative study aimed to examine patients' experiences and views of day case surgery to improve health professionals' knowledge and understanding, in order to make recommendations for improving the quality of this service and to provide information which may be considered when further developing services in the future. The grounded theory methodology was adopted using informal conversational style interviews with eight participants. The constant comparative method was employed to identify coherent patterns and themes in the data. Patients expressed dissatisfaction with the scheduling of their operations and emphasized the importance of planning before admission, during their period of hospitalization and in preparation for discharge. Patients unanimously recognized that they were inadequately prepared for day case surgery in terms of information and educational support and from a perceived knowledge gap within the multi-disciplinary health care team. They also believed that there was a lack of continuity of care during their day case experience, and were unprepared for the increased level of patient empowerment but were interested in developing a collaborative relationship with staff. Patients claimed that they like day case surgery because it resulted in minimal disruption to their personal lives. Patients are consumers of the National Health Service (NHS) and have first-hand experience and knowledge of the services provided. In order to improve satisfaction further, patients' perspectives must be used to reshape and make better use of the limited resources to benefit the service, patients and ultimately the NHS.