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

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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
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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.

Official Title
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An Open Label Randomised Control Trial Comparing Three Methods of Outpatient Follow up After Surgical Admission in Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown; Text Message, Phone Call and In-person Appointment

Conditions
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Outpatients, Virtual Clinic, Text Messaging, General Surgery

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Text message follow up
* Other: Telephone follow up
* Other: In person follow up


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 16 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Active Comparator: Text Message<br>Patients will be followed up with a series of text messages at 6-8 weeks | Other: Text message follow up<br>* A text message will be sent to the patient 6-8 weeks following discharge<br>|
| Active Comparator: Telephone<br>Patients will be followed with a telephone conversation at 6-8 weeks | Other: Telephone follow up<br>* The patient will be followed up at 6-8 weeks following discharge with a telephone call<br>|
| Active Comparator: In person<br>Patients will be followed in person in the Outpatient department at 6-8 weeks | Other: In person follow up<br>* The patient will be followed up at 6-8 weeks following discharge in person in the outpatient department<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Complications that require further follow up | Complications are identified by patient record and follow up method selected | 6-8 weeks | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Satisfaction in follow up | 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. | 8-10 weeks | 
| Willingness to use a virtual clinic app in the future | 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. | 8-10 weeks | 
| Follow up preference | Preferred follow up method will be identified by above patient questionnaire (text, phone or OPD) | 8-10 weeks | 
| Lost to follow up | number of patients that are lost to follow up per follow up method | 6-8 weeks | 
| Further procedures arranged | number of patients who have an additional procedure arranged which will be identified in the medical record | 8-10 weeks | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Randomised control trial, Virtual clinic, Text messaging, General surgery, Outpatients, Satisfaction, Telemedicine