Telephone consultations in place of face to face out-patient consultations for patients discharged from hospital following surgery: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Routine follow-up following uncomplicated surgery is being delivered by telephone in some settings. Telephone consultations may be preferable to patients and improve outpatient resource use. We aimed to compare the effectiveness of telephone consultations with face to face follow-up consultations, in patients discharged from hospital following surgery. METHODS: Seven electronic databases (including Medline, Embase and PsycINFO) were searched from inception to July 2011. Comparative studies of any design in which routine follow-up via telephone was compared with face to face consultation in patients discharged from hospital after surgery were included. Study selection, data extraction and quality appraisal were performed independently by two reviewers with consensus reached by discussion and involvement of a third reviewer where necessary. RESULTS: Five papers (four studies; 865 adults) met the inclusion criteria. The studies were of low methodological quality and reported dissimilar outcomes precluding any formal synthesis. CONCLUSIONS: There has been very little comparative evaluation of different methods of routine follow-up care in patients discharged from hospital following surgery. Further work is needed to establish a role for telephone consultation in this patient group.
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Previous research on telephone consultations is sparse and supports no firm conclusions.
“Previous research on telephone consultations is surprisingly sparse and supports no firm conclusions”
From Planning and Evaluating Remote Consultation Services: A New Conceptual Framework Incorporating Complexity and Practical Ethics (2021) · cites this paper as [98]
Several studies have suggested that double-handling may reduce efficiency.
“several studies have suggested that double-handling may reduce efficiency (32, 98–102)”
From Planning and Evaluating Remote Consultation Services: A New Conceptual Framework Incorporating Complexity and Practical Ethics (2021) · cites this paper as [98]
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- Authors
- Thompson-Coon, J., Abdul-Rahman, A.-K., Whear, R., Bethel, A., Vaidya, B., Gericke, C. A., & Stein, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (GB)
- ORCID
- Venue
- BMC Health Services Research
- Published
- 2013-04-05
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 128-128
- ISSN
- 1472-6963 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3626714
- OpenAlex
- W1980797119
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Health Services Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Healthcare Systems and Technology
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare
- Keywords
- telephone consultation, postoperative follow-up, outpatient visits, postoperative care, hospital discharge
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aftercare, Ambulatory Care, Appointments and Schedules, Female, Humans, Male, Patient Discharge, Postoperative Period, Surgical Procedures, Operative, Telephone, Young Adult
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