When patients receive medical device implants, their emotions are influenced by both the outcomes healthcare providers and medical device companies deliver and by how these outcomes compare with patients’ expectations.
Patient education is the primary way to manage these expectations.
A Gallup analysis found that patients generally receive education before surgery which has significant positive effects on surgery outcomes.
These results include increased overall patient satisfaction, reduced problem incidence and improved quality of life.
The positive correlation between patient education and post-surgery outcomes is not simply good news for patients but it also has significant implications for healthcare providers and medical device manufacturers.
In addition, reducing the number of problems could directly reduce costly readmissions for hospitals. While higher patient satisfaction levels could simultaneously contribute to improved Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey scores and a greater share of incentive payments.
Furthermore, lower problem incidence could directly reduce costly revision surgeries, malpractice lawsuits or both which would be helpful for physicians and implant manufacturers.
In the Gallup study, researchers asked patients undergoing medical device implantation about three important aspects of pre-surgery education. Patients were also asked to rate their levels of agreement using a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree) according to three statements.
The study showed that each of these aspects of pre-surgery education substantially influenced post-surgery outcomes.
When patients strongly agreed with any of the three statements, 72% were extremely satisfied with the surgery results and only 8% reported problems following the surgery.
When patients did not strongly agree with any of the three statements, 39% were extremely satisfied with the surgery results and 27% reported problems after the surgery.