Day-of-surgery interactions can enhance patient satisfaction
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Results showed phone and video calls by surgeons to patients the day of orthopedic surgery may enhance patient satisfaction with the clinical care experience, with video calls providing superior results in satisfaction with overall care.
Matthew T. Kingery, MD, of the department of orthopedics at NYU Langone Health, and colleagues randomly assigned three surgeons who provided outpatient orthopedic surgery to 251 patients to one of three patient communication modalities, including no contact (n=61), phone call (n=119) or video call (n=71). The surgeons contacted patients according to their assigned treatment group several hours following discharge on the day of surgery, according to researchers. Researchers used the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Surgical Care (S-CAHPS) survey and an additional satisfaction questionnaire to assess satisfaction outcomes at the initial postoperative visit.
Results showed the video group and phone group had greater S-CAHPS top-box response rates vs. the no contact group. Researchers found 85.9% of patients in the video group gave the top-box response when asked to rate satisfaction with overall care compared with 71.8% of patients in the phone group and 60.7% of patients in the no contact group. In future encounters with their surgeon, 62% of patients in the video group reported preferring a video call vs. 1.8% of patients in the no contact group and 1.7% of patients in the phone group, according to results.
Following the investigation, Kingery noted patients said receiving a video call from their surgeon following surgery “demonstrated the high level of care and interest that the surgeon has in their patient’s recovery process,” which has become an area of concern in the health care landscape.
“Finding novel ways to maximize patient satisfaction is becoming increasingly important as reimbursement becomes closely tied with measures of patient satisfaction, like the [Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health care Providers and Systems] HCAHPS survey,” Kingery told Healio Orthopedics. “More importantly, because many encounters between patient and surgeon in busy orthopedic surgery practices tend to be fairly brief, it is critical that patients feel that they are receiving sufficient face time with their surgeon.”
Perspective
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This well-designed level-1 study validates a practice pearl that has been recognized for a generation: Patients want more contact with their physician! Twenty years ago, while in residency, I observed in awe as a few of my personal mentors with well-established and highly successful practices took the time to call and check up on their surgical patients. I realize now that they weren’t just master surgeons, they had mastered the art of making a connection with the patient, arguably a far more important skill to perfect. As this study illustrates with data, taking a few minutes out of your day to make this connection can make a huge difference in a patient’s perception of care.
As the hamster wheel of practice keeps surgeons young and old busy with clinical duties, this study helps to remind us that the measure of success in practice isn’t just how many surgeries you performed last year, or how many patients that were seen in clinic. The personal touch of making contact with a patient is hard to replace. The method of contact will continue to evolve as technology evolves; from the house call of yesteryear, to a phone call, to a video call, to some other future technology, but the tenet remains the same.
Perspective
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The article by Matthew T. Kingery, MD, and colleagues is especially timely, as we have all faced challenges associated with providing high-quality orthopedic care to our patients in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many surgeons, this has meant the early and rapid adoption of virtual care. The present article examined use of telehealth on the day of surgery to provide that extra personal touch several hours after surgery.
While we are often fatigued at the end of an arduous surgical day, the individual patient only knows their singular experience with the surgeon. Often times, when we talk to a patient after their surgery, the fog of anesthesia masks the actual conversation for the patient. Alternatively, we might relay messages through a family member. Based on the presented evidence, a “virtual” video or phone visit several hours after the procedure, once anesthesia has worn off, made the patient experience more personal and satisfying.
The authors should be commended for objectively measuring the benefits of this additional use for virtual care. It shows the power of this emerging technology for improving the patient experience in a manner that could previously only be achieved through house calls.
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