Discharge with a smartphone application for follow-up after day care surgery: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Day care surgery patients have limited options to communicate pain or nausea to their healthcare providers after discharge. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a smartphone application for pain and nausea follow-up as an enhancement to standard care. Methods: We performed a multi center non-blinded prospective randomised controlled trial including day care surgery patients. The intervention group received a smartphone application with bidirectional messaging and standard care for postoperative follow-up. The control group received standard care. The primary outcome was measured with the Quality of Recovery-15 scale on the seventh postoperative day. Secondary endpoints included quality of recovery at postoperative day 1 and 4, satisfaction with care, trust in hospital care, and patient remarks concerning recovery and complications. Results: Out of 301 included patients, 149 were randomly assigned to the smartphone application and 152 to standard care. Perioperative characteristics were comparable between the groups. On postoperative day 7, no difference was observed in quality of recovery, with median difference 0.0 (95% confidence interval: −10.0 to 7.0; P=0.56). Ratings of satisfaction, trust, and to recommend the hospital showed no clinically important differences. Conclusions: We found no differences in patient-reported quality of recovery for day care surgical patients when adding postoperative follow-up of pain and nausea via a smartphone application compared with standard care alone.