A Study Comparing Three Methods of Outpatient Follow up After Surgical Admission; Text Message, Phone Call and In-person Appointment

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Outpatients; Virtual Clinic; General Surgery; Text Messaging
• Interventions: Other: Text message follow up; Other: Telephone follow up; Other: In person follow up

• Registration Number: NCT04245020
• Lead Sponsor: Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown

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.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2019-09-15
• Study Start: 2019-09-16
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-01-27
• Study First Posted: 2020-01-28
• Primary Completion: 2020-06-21
• Study Completion: 2020-06-21
• Status Verified: 2021-04
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-04-22
• Last Update Posted: 2021-04-26

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 208

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Text Message	Text message follow up	Patients will be followed up with a series of text messages at 6-8 weeks
Telephone	Telephone follow up	Patients will be followed with a telephone conversation at 6-8 weeks
In person	In person follow up	Patients will be followed in person in the Outpatient department at 6-8 weeks

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Complications that require further follow up	6-8 weeks	Complications are identified by patient record and follow up method selected

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
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

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown; 🇮🇪 Dublin 15, Co. Dublin, Ireland