Efficacy of a telephone postop clinic for low-risk patients

Editor's Note

Implementation of a telephone postoperative clinic significantly improved utilization of surgeon and facility resources while maintaining patient outcomes, this study finds.

Of 200 patients included in the study, 29 had in-person postoperative follow-up and 171 had telephone follow-up.

There was no difference in rates of emergency department visits or readmissions between the in-person (0.17) and telephone (0.12) postoperative care patients.

Complication rates were comparable for patients with and without telephone follow-up (6% vs 8%).

Implementation of the telephone postoperative clinic has increased access to care while mitigating long travel distances and inconvenience for patients, the authors say.

Prior work suggested that telephone follow-up could be used in lieu of in-person follow-up after surgery, saving patients time and travel while improving utilization of scarce surgeon and facility resources. We report our experience implementing and evaluating telephone postoperative follow-up within an integrated health system.