General Surgery, Outpatients, Text Messaging, Virtual Clinic
Conditions
Keywords
Randomised control trial, Virtual clinic, Text messaging, General surgery, Outpatients, Satisfaction, Telemedicine
Brief summary
This study compares three different methods of outpatient follow up after surgical admission to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown. The three arms of the study are text message, telephone call or in-person outpatient follow up. Data will be collected to identify complications identified in each arm along with the rate of non-response to the follow up methods and the level of satisfaction with the method. Willingness to use a telemedicine app in the future will also be evaluated through satisfaction survey.
Detailed description
This is a non-blinded, single centre open randomised control trial of the outpatient follow up method following surgical admission to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown. All eligible patients will be randomised into three arms, text message, telephone or in-person follow up. The follow up will be carried out at 6-8 weeks following discharge. The rate of complications, the non-response rate and the level of satisfaction will be compared between the three groups. Willingness to use a telemedicine app in the future in place of an in-person follow up will also be measured by patient satisfaction questionnaire.
Interventions
OTHERText message follow up
A text message will be sent to the patient 6-8 weeks following discharge
OTHERTelephone follow up
The patient will be followed up at 6-8 weeks following discharge with a telephone call
OTHERIn person follow up
The patient will be followed up at 6-8 weeks following discharge in person in the outpatient department
Sponsors
Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
16 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Surgical patients admitted either as an emergency or for an elective procedure * 16 years or older
Exclusion criteria
* Did not consent or cannot give consent * Age less than 16 * No smartphone * Further follow up required for treatment of further investigation * Diagnosis or suspected diagnosis of malignancy
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Complications that require further follow up | 6-8 weeks | Complications are identified by patient record and follow up method selected |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Satisfaction in follow up | 8-10 weeks | A questionnaire will assess how happy based on a survey patients were with their follow up method. The CSQ 8 score will be used along with a previously published questionnaire from this institiution. In the CSQ-8 questionnaire a higher score indicates more satisfaction. |
| Willingness to use a virtual clinic app in the future | 8-10 weeks | A questionnaire will assess patients preference in further follow up, specifically are patients happy to use a telemedicine based app. (answer no definitely not, no not really, yes generally, yes definitely. |
| Follow up preference | 8-10 weeks | Preferred follow up method will be identified by above patient questionnaire (text, phone or OPD) |
| Lost to follow up | 6-8 weeks | number of patients that are lost to follow up per follow up method |
| Further procedures arranged | 8-10 weeks | number of patients who have an additional procedure arranged which will be identified in the medical record |
Countries
Ireland
Outcome results
None listed