Preoperative Immersive Patient Quality Experience

Summary

In the current constantly changing healthcare landscape quality measurement has a central role. As the practice of medicine is shifting from authority to accountability, the quality of surgical interventions is under continuous scrutiny by patients, peers, payers, and policy makers. If done appropriately quality measurement can empower all members of the healthcare debate. There is increasing focus on patient satisfaction outcomes as quality indicators.

An important part of surgical outcomes is a patient's perception of the result of the intervention and overall experience in the preoperative setting. When assessing surgical outcomes, measuring patient satisfaction is necessary. A qualitative systematic review of patient satisfaction measures noted a scarcity of well-development quality improvement initiatives to improve patient satisfaction. Anxiety, a potent behavioral and psychological reaction, weighs heavily on a patient's perioperative experience and is exacerbated by preoperative concerns about underlying disease and impending anesthesia and surgery.

There are multiple stressors on the day of the surgery: unfamiliar environment, multiple forms to be signed, and multiple short encounters with new and unfamiliar personnel. These create confusion, increase baseline anxiety, and can negatively affect patient experience, and by extension surgical outcomes.

Increasing familiarity with this environment can help patients feel more informed about what matters most to them, and have more accurate expectations of possible benefits and harms of their options. This can potentially decrease overall anxiety, improve patient satisfaction, and decrease pain levels. With the current study investigators will have the following two specific aims:

Aim 1. To determine whether an immersive preoperative experience (video) is associated with decreased anxiety and improved patient experience during the perioperative phase.

Aim 2. To determine whether an immersive preoperative experience is associated with decreased stress, improved patient satisfaction, and decreased pain during the perioperative phase.

Conditions

• Patient-centered Outcomes Research
• Surgery

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Immersive Preoperative Experience

The video will include a simulated patient encounter (with actors not real patients) showcasing the preoperative experience of the patient, including getting checked in, meeting the nurses, surgeons, and the anesthesiologists. The technology used will allow the immersion of the patient in the preoperative environment. Patients will be able to look around and explore the spaces they will visit on the day of their operation.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kimon Bekelis, MD · Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-12-31

Primary Completion

2016-04-30

Completion

2016-04-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations