Patient Outcomes Collection: How Can we do Better?

Rush

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Shoulder Pain

Treatments: Behavioral: Pre- and Post-operative discussion; Behavioral: Incentive; Behavioral: Email reminders

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03653455

18041709

Details and patient eligibility

About

Patient reported outcomes (PROs) are widely used by clinical providers as important tools to help inform their clinical and research practice, and to improve quality of care for patients. In this study, the investigators aim to investigate ways by which patient PRO completion rates may be improved.

Full description

Patient reported outcomes (PROs) are widely used by clinical providers as important tools to help inform their clinical and research practice, and to improve quality of care for patients. In addition, PROs are increasingly cited as a tool in measuring surgical performance and the value of health care services being delivered. The quality of data captured by PROs is, however, largely dependent on patients' response rates, both pre- and post-operatively. For pre-operative surveys, higher response rates may be achieved as patients may be reminded to complete their surveys at an office visit or prior to surgery. However, patient non-compliance presents a major challenge post-operatively, undermining PRO data integrity.

As clinical practices have moved to using PROs for all patients, rather than just a research tool, automated systems have been developed to deliver and collect PRO electronically. However, while automation has helped streamline PRO administration and data collection, this hasn't always translated into obtaining better PRO compliance rates. In an attempt to improve response rates, efforts have been made to reduce patient burden (by reducing the number of questions asked, for example), to regularly remind patients to complete their forms (either by email or telephone), or even offer patients monetary or non-monetary incentives.

Despite these measures' variable success, however, achieving high response rates remains a challenge. This, in part, is due to the fact these platforms depend heavily on patients receiving the request and their willingness to participate in the program, often long after their care is completed. As data are increasingly used to measure physician performance and quality, as well as to determine reimbursement, low patient compliance rates remain a significant impediment and affect the validity of the data.

In this study, the invetigators hypothesize that direct patient engagement can improve patient compliance with automated PRO capture.

Enrollment: 400 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients scheduled to undergo shoulder arthroscopy for rotator cuff condition (sub-acromial decompression, distal clavicle resection, biceps tenodesis, partial or full thickness rotator cuff tear repair or debridement) will be eligible for enrollment in the appropriate cohort. There will be no restrictions to this enrollment apart from that presented in the exclusions below.

Exclusion criteria

1. Minors or those over the age of 80
2. Subjects lacking English proficiency to complete the PROs of interest.
3. Past or current medical history that would preclude patients from undergoing surgery.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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400 participants in 3 patient groups

Pre- and post-operative discussion group

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will discuss with their care provider their health outcomes before and at 6-months after their surgery. In addition, patients will receive email reminders to complete their forms, if they haven't done so.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Pre- and Post-operative discussion

Behavioral: Email reminders

Incentivised group

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will receive up to $30 in amazon gift cards as an incentive if they complete their forms before surgery, as well as at 6-months and 1-year after surgery. In addition, patients will receive email reminders to complete their forms, if they haven't done so.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Incentive

Behavioral: Email reminders

Control group

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will only receive email reminders to complete their forms, if they haven't done so.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Email reminders