SMS Reminder for Forgotten Ureteral Stents

• Conditions: Stents

• Registration Number: NCT01172158
• Lead Sponsor: Dicle University

Brief Summary

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.

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 Timeline

• Study Start: 2010-05
• Study First Submitted: 2010-06-29
• Status Verified: 2010-07
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-07-28
• Last Update Submitted: 2010-07-28
• Study First Posted: 2010-07-29
• Last Update Posted: 2010-07-29
• Primary Completion: 2010-10
• Study Completion: 2011-08

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 250

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 & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
A solution for medical and legal problems arising from forgotten ureteral stents: Reminder Short Message Service (SMS)	five months	Primary Outcome Measure will be evaluated with; 1. 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.; 2. 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.; 3. Patient satisfaction surveys; 4. The time of the patients admitted. The data obtained from this study will be compared with previous data.

Secondary Outcome Measures

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

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Dicle University School of Medicine; 🇹🇷 Diyarbakir, Turkey