Follow-up postoperative calls to reduce common postoperative complaints among urogynecology patients

Abstract

Introduction and hypothesis: The purpose of our study was to identify the most common reasons why postoperative urogynecology patients called their surgeon within the first 6 weeks of surgery. We hypothesize that implementing a follow-up postoperative call (FPC) policy would decrease the number of patient-initiated calls within this postoperative period.

Methods: This is a prospective before-and-after cohort study that was conducted in two phases. The initial phase identified the most common reasons why patients call within 6 weeks of their inpatient or outpatient urogynecological surgery. In the second phase, an intervention was implemented where each postoperative patient was called within 48 to 72 h of discharge: the intervention group. The primary outcome was the number of phone calls initiated by patients during the 6-week postoperative period.

Results: There were 226 patients in the control group and 233 patients in the intervention group. Significantly fewer calls were initiated by patients in the intervention group, both groups having a median of 1 call per person, range 0-8 in the control group and 0-10 in the intervention group (p = 0.04). The five most common complaints were as follows: pain (20.4%), medication management (17.4%), disability paperwork (15.5%), and laboratory results (11.5%). There was a significant reduction in calls concerning constipation, laboratory/pathology results, and disability insurance claims after implementing the FPC policy.

Conclusions: The implementation of the FPC policy resulted in fewer patient-initiated calls. As such, there were significant reductions in postoperative complaints of constipation, vaginal bleeding, incomplete bladder emptying, and inquiries into laboratory results and disability paperwork.

Keywords: Postoperative care; Postoperative complaints; Postoperative period; Postoperative telephone call; Telephone.