SMS Reminder for Forgotten Ureteral Stents (sms&FUS)

A Solution for Medical and Legal Problems Arising From Forgotten Ureteral Stents: Reminder Short Message Service (SMS)

Ureteral stents has become an indispensable instrument for urology practice as a result of widespread use of endourological interventions. Removal of stents could be sometimes neglected by patients or physicians. This omission may lead to legal and medical problems for urologists, health institutions and also for patients. In this study, the investigators offer a computer program providing two sided recall to prevent this nasty complication with sending automatic message by short message service (SMS) to both the patient and the urologist.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Stents

Detailed Description

In this study, first an institutional subscription agreement was signed between our university and a mobile phone cell company which is supporting SMS sending program. In the second step, by making software plug-in to our hospital's patient follow up program, two programs were integrated. According to this integration, after stent insertion, in case of entering the numerical code corresponding of ''ureteral stent application'' procedure during the stage of epicrisis preparation, the patient follow up system warns the official recording the epicrisis to enter the stent removal time. Patient follow up system transfers this information to SMS sending program. After several weeks of the procedure, if the stent needs to be removed, the software automatically sends a warning message to the patient and the physician. If the patients attends to urology department and undergoes stent removal, the official enters the code of "endoscopic stent removal" to the patient follow-up program. Then the program stops to send warning message.

By the software plug-in to patient follow up program, SMS sending was made mandatory not to forget or skip none of the patients during the epicrisis writing procedure.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 250

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • Diyarbakir, Turkey
    • Dicle University School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 1 year to 80 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

First an institutional subscription agreement was signed between our university and a mobile phone cell company which is supporting SMS sending program. In the By making software plug-in to our hospital's patient follow up program, two programs were integrated. According to this integration, after stent insertion, in case of entering the numerical code corresponding of ''ureteral stent application'' procedure during the stage of epicrisis preparation, the patient follow up system warns the official recording the epicrisis to enter the stent removal time. Patient follow up system transfers this information to SMS sending program. After several weeks of the procedure, if the stent needs to be removed, the software automatically sends a warning message to the patient and the physician.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients who had ureteral stent insertion.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who did not want SMS message from us or want to give cell phone number.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Forgotten ureteral stents

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
A solution for medical and legal problems arising from forgotten ureteral stents: Reminder Short Message Service (SMS)	Primary Outcome Measure will be evaluated with; Number of the patients who admitted for stent removal will be compared with the patients who did not admit. So the effectivity of the SMS sending proram will be evaluated.; The percentage of complication of forgotten ureteral stent will be calculated. And this rate will be compared with the previous rate of same department and the rates reported in the literature.; Patient satisfaction surveys; The time of the patients admitted. The data obtained from this study will be compared with previous data.	five months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
SMS Reminder for Forgotten Ureteral Stents	Secondary, this practice can be prevalent in all hospitals at the our country.	one year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Dicle University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ahmet A Sancaktutar, Asist Prof., Department of Urology, Dicle University School of Medicine

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: May 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): October 1, 2010
• Study Completion (Anticipated): August 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 29, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 28, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): July 29, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): July 29, 2010
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 28, 2010
• Last Verified: July 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: forgotten ureteral stents, SMS Reminder
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1-Dicle University