Patients for Patients Safety (PFPS) is a World Health Organization (WHO) program which advocates meaningful engagement of patients and families to improve patient safety. Perioperative patient safety encompasses the surgical risks, as well as risks due to anesthesia. This study was conceptualized to assess patient perception of their involvement in enhancing their own perioperative safety and also assess the current state of patient knowledge regarding anesthesia.

This observational cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital of India. One hundred sixty-three consenting adults, aged 19 years to 75 years, scheduled for elective surgery, between May and July 2022, having American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1 to 3 participated in the study. Patients having psychiatric disorder, cognitive impairment, speech and hearing problems were excluded.

A pre-validated questionnaire of 21 questions was administered in pre-operative area. Data collection was done in online MS excel spreadsheet format.

In our study it was encouraging to note that the general awareness on requirement of anesthesia for surgery was widely acknowledged. Nonetheless, the information about anesthesia as a separate specialty, and anesthesiologists as specialized doctors, was lacking (43/163, 28.8%). The inadequate awareness about anesthesia specialty as found in our study, might not be a true reflection of a wider population, which calls attention to invest in anesthesia awareness programs. Our study revealed a very promising initial step in patient empowerment, as majority of patients (100/163; 61.3%) were amenable to participate in their own perioperative safety. Regardless of education status, the population in general needs to be familiarized with the shared patient responsibility in enhancing patient safety, just like other public health programs. Our study aligns with the recently proposed concrete interventions for improving quality of perioperative care at a global stage which contributes to Sustainable Development Goals targets towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

No external funding was received for the study. All researchers were independent from the funders and had full access to data in the study.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The Jamia Hamdard Institutional Ethics Committee of Jamia Hamdard gave ethical approval of this work The Clinical Trial Registry India (CTRI) of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute for Research in Digital Health and Data Science gave ethical approval for this work

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

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The data presented in this article are openly available and have been uploaded as supplementary materials. This study adheres to the STROBE guidelines and has been registered with a clinical trial registration number. [Institutional Ethics committee: JHIEC 01/20. Clinical Trials Registry-India: CTRI/2020/10/028318.]