Patient Satisfaction With Postoperative Communication Modality

Communication between a surgeon and a patient in the immediate postoperative period is thought to influence patient satisfaction. There is currently no standard of care regarding the optimal form of postoperative communication, nor is there a consensus in our department as to which modality is preferred by patients.The purpose of this study is to determine which form of communication, if any, is preferred by patients. Furthermore, this study aims to evaluate the impact that various forms of communication during the immediate postoperative period have on patient (subject) satisfaction. The study hypothesizes that patient (subject) satisfaction with their surgeon will be highest among those who communicate with their surgeons via videotelephony (i.e., videoconferencing) and that the lowest satisfaction will be among patients (subjects) who did not communicate with their surgeon until their regularly scheduled postoperative office visit. The results of this study may help identify low cost methods for increasing patient satisfaction.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Surgery
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Voice call; Behavioral: Video call

Detailed Description

This is a prospective, randomized study designed to evaluate the effects of different communication modalities between surgeons and patients (subjects) in the immediate postoperative period. Given the nature of the study, it is not possible for either the surgeons or the subjects to be blinded. To reduce bias that may occur due to each surgeon's personal preference for postoperative communication modality, the surgeons (rather than individual subjects) will be randomized to one of the three communication modality groups (no communication on the day of surgery, voice call, or videoconferencing).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 295
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • New York, New York, United States, 10016
      • NYU Langone Health

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• undergoing surgery at the NYU Langone Orthopedic Center

Exclusion Criteria:

• Under the age of 18 years old

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: OTHER
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
NO_INTERVENTION: No Communication group; Participants will not communicate with their surgeons until the post operative office visit.
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Voice call group; Participants will receive voice call from the surgeon after being discharged and before their post operative office visit.	Behavioral: Voice call; Attending surgeons will contact with their patients on the day of surgery after discharge via voice call.
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Video call group; Participants will receive video call from surgeon after being discharged and before their post operative office visit	Behavioral: Video call; Attending surgeons will contact with their patients on the day of surgery after discharge via video call (video conferencing application such as FaceTime or Skype)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Percent of participants' satisfaction with surgeon	The first self reported survey is designed specifically for this study to assess participants' satisfaction with their experience and postoperative communication.	post operative office visit (1 week after surgery)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Percent of participants' satisfaction with hospital experience	The second self reported survey contains questions from the standard HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey, which has been validated and used extensively to assess subject satisfaction with hospital experience.	post operative office visit (1 week after surgery)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: NYU Langone Health

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): December 1, 2018
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): June 30, 2019
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): July 20, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 6, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 6, 2020
• First Posted (ACTUAL): April 8, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): April 10, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 8, 2020
• Last Verified: April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 18-01489

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Individual participant data that underlie the results reported in this article, after deidentification (text, tables, figures, and appendices).
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Beginning 9 months and ending 36 months following article publication or as required by a condition of awards and agreements supporting the research.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: The investigator who proposed to use the data and upon reasonable request. Requests should be directed to matthew.kingery@nyulangone.org. To gain access, data requestors will need to sign a data access agreement.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No