A pair of reports suggests that modern communication methods may be appropriate for post-surgery recovery, albeit at the risk of exacerbating the downsides of any language barriers and digital literacy.
In the midst of the COVID pandemic, telemedicine uptake and use has been greatly expanded by health care providers. In one small trial, cut short by COVID, researchers investigated whether telemedicine was an adequate form of patient follow-up after low-risk surgery.
The video-based post-discharge visits were as effective in terms of getting patients to return to the hospital within 30 days for a hospital encounter. The video visits were half an hour shorter but provided patients with the same amount of time with their surgeons.
However, out of 1645 individuals screened, many participants were excluded due to language difficulties, and 50 were excluded due to a “technology barrier”.
Caroline Reinke, MD, MSHP, of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and her team wrote, “Patients and clinicians should be reassured that the critical visit portion, time together discussing medical needs, is preserved. This information will help surgeons and patients feel more confident in using video-based virtual visits.”
Reinke and her team noted that COVID cut the study short: “Although we did not reach target enrollment, noninferiority was demonstrated for postdischarge virtual visits in our study sample and was further supported via a simulation model.”
In another study, Marie-Laure Cittanova, MD, PhD, of Clinique Saint Jean de Dieu in Paris, and her team compared using SMS to contact patients as opposed to calling them. When contacted after being told to expect a contact throughout the following day, 46.2% of patients were reachable by phone, compared to 85.3% by SMS.
Patients expressed similar levels of satisfaction with the SMS service, which was significantly cheaper than using phone calls. However, the single-centre study lacked generalisability.
Source: MedPage Today
Journal information (primary source): Harkey K, et al “Postdischarge virtual visits for low-risk surgeries: a randomized noninferiority clinical trial” JAMA Surg 2021; DOI: 10.1001/jamasurg.2020.6265.
Journal information (secondary source): Cittanova M, et al “Association of automated text messaging with patient response rate after same-day surgery” JAMA Surg 2021; DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.33312.
