Patient-Specific E-mailed Discharge Instructions Improve Patient Satisfaction and Patient Understanding After Surgical Arthroscopy

Patients Have Poor Postoperative Recall of Information Provided the Day of Surgery but Report Satisfaction With and High Use of an E-mailed Postoperative Digital Media Package

“…Santoro et al. 2 found 72% of patients shared their digital media, whereas just 34.5% of patients shared the print media. In addition, when stratified for age group, younger individuals in our study were likely to share their information more frequently.…”

“… 1 Improved patient satisfaction has been tied to multiple measures, including better outcomes, reduced readmission rates, adherence to treatment plans, and improved follow-up. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 Many factors impact the subjective patient experience. 2 , 6 Although many of these are related to the successful technical portion of the procedure, a large portion also are related to physician communication and engagement throughout the perioperative period.…”

“… 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 Many factors impact the subjective patient experience. 2 , 6 Although many of these are related to the successful technical portion of the procedure, a large portion also are related to physician communication and engagement throughout the perioperative period. For outpatient surgical procedures, it has been found that the most influential factors involving patient satisfaction are informed consent and home care after discharge.…”

“… 9 , 10 , 11 Santoro et al. 2 demonstrated improved patient surgical experience and understanding of the surgical procedure when patients were sent an e-mail containing digital instructions and annotated surgical images compared with the standard printed instructions. The addition of digital media (i.e., video calls, recorded video message, pictures) has been shown to improve patient satisfaction and engagement.…”

“…The addition of digital media (i.e., video calls, recorded video message, pictures) has been shown to improve patient satisfaction and engagement. 2 , 12 , 13 , 14 Evolving technology continues to provide opportunities to improve the patient experience; however, to fully use them, we must understand what information patients find beneficial and how they use it.…”