PCA: patient satisfaction, nursing satisfaction and cost-effectiveness

Health care professionals are attempting to provide effective postoperative pain relief by using patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). PCA allows analgesics to be delivered intraveneously (IV) in small doses by the patient. The advantage of PCA over conventional intramuscular (IM) injections is that the patient simply pushes a button in order to receive an analgesic. A study was conducted to survey patient and nurse satisfaction with PCA and to compare the cost-effectiveness of PCA with that of conventional IM analgesia in postoperative orthopedic patients. The sample consisted of 66 postoperative orthopedic patients who received either PCA or IM injections and who were asked to rate the level of analgesia obtained. The results indicated that patients who received PCA were more satisfied. The cost to deliver PCA was $6.62 more than that of IM analgesia delivery, but patient satisfaction may justify the expense.