Postoperative Follow-up Via Text Messages Automated Versus Telephone in Patients With Continuous Regional Anesthesia

Overview

Monitoring performed by a trained operator has proven to be useful and valued by patients after the use of continuous regional anesthesia. A health professional calls each patient to gather information about their recovery. However, this direct communication strategy requires time and resources, especially if many patients are involved. A modern and convenient approach involves the use of immediate communication technology for follow-up after a procedure. They may contain specific questions that patients can easily answer from their mobile devices. Automated text messages could be associated with greater convenience and ease for patients with response rates at least like the traditional method. Phone calls, on the other hand, may be less scalable and require more human resources. The objective of the project is to evaluate the feasibility of monitoring through automated electronic messaging by evaluating its usability using a validated scale in Spanish. response rate on the first day and adherence rate compared to that of the traditional method. Secondarily, adherence and differences in satisfaction will be compared.

Communication with patients after performing any procedure under regional anesthesia is essential to evaluate pain control, measure patient satisfaction, and detect post-surgical and post-anesthetic complications. However, for outpatients, achieving follow-up through phone calls can be a real challenge. Gessner et al report that successful daily telephone contact for patients discharged with a continuous perineural blocking catheter varies between 49 and 65%. While their results with the use of an automated messaging system, delivered results as promising as a response rate of 91%, considering a range of 18 to 90 years. It is known that the mobile application market is expanding with great diversity on different devices. For this reason, there is great competition among application developers to create those that best fulfill the tasks proposed each day. For this, the usability of mobile applications is a crucial tool to obtain a competitive advantage in these circumstances. The significance of the expected results described above will open a door to the sequential or gradual implementation of a system that allows us to reduce the time and/or number of people required per day to achieve adequate follow-up of the patients. In addition, it would leave room for new projects that seek to devise an ordered work plan to identify the subgroup of patients who objectively require a live call to evaluate complications of the procedure. The hypothesis is that the use of a mobile monitoring application in patients using postoperative continuous ambulatory regional analgesia is associated with usability levels equal to or higher than the 64th percentile measured on the SUS usability scale in its Spanish version. To determine the degree of satisfaction that exists between the use of an automated system for the monitoring of patients undergoing continuous regional anesthesia at the UC-Christus Clinical Hospital. How much it impacts adherence to follow-up will also be reviewed, comparing it with the traditional method (telephone interview). A convenience sample of 100 consecutive patients will be selected with continuous outpatient regional analgesia performed in the wards of the UC-Christus Clinical Hospital, San Carlos de Apoquindo Clinic and Santa Lucía Medical Center. For this, for a maximum period of 6 months, 100 patients will be randomly distributed into 2 groups, one for conventional telephone follow-up and the other for use of the app.