Document Detail


Case scheduling preferences of one Surgeon's cataract surgery patients.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  19151291     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
BACKGROUND: The increase in the number of operating rooms nationwide in the United States may reflect preferences of patients for scheduling of outpatient surgery. Yet, little is known of the importance that patients place on scheduling convenience and flexibility. METHODS: Fifty cataract surgery patients seen by a surgeon at his main office during a 6-mo period responded to a marketing survey. All the patients had Medicare insurance and supplemental insurance permitting surgery at any facility. A telephone questionnaire included four vignettes describing different choices in the scheduling of cataract surgery. Respondents were asked how far they would be willing to travel for one option instead of another. For example, "Your surgery will be on Thursday in three weeks at 2 pm. You can drink water until 9 am. You arrive at 10 am, because your surgery might start early. If you travel farther, you would arrive at 8 am for 9 am surgery." RESULTS: The median (50th percentile) additional travel time was 60 min (lower 95% confidence bound >or=52 min) for each of four options: to receive care on a day chosen by the patient instead of assigned by the physician, to receive care at a single site instead of both the surgeon's office and a surgery center at a different location, to combine the examination and the surgery into a single visit instead of two visits, and to have surgery in the morning instead of the afternoon. CONCLUSIONS: The patients of this ophthalmologist placed a high value on convenience and flexibility in scheduling their surgery. In general, this would be achievable only if many operating rooms were available each morning.
Authors:
Franklin Dexter; Lee Birchansky; James M Bernstein; Ruth E Wachtel
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Anesthesia and analgesia     Volume:  108     ISSN:  1526-7598     ISO Abbreviation:  Anesth. Analg.     Publication Date:  2009 Feb 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2009-01-19     Completed Date:  2009-02-09     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  1310650     Medline TA:  Anesth Analg     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  579-82     Citation Subset:  AIM; IM    
Affiliation:
Division of Management Consulting, Department of Anesthesia, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Franklin-Dexter@UIowa.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Aged
Ambulatory Surgical Procedures*
Anxiety / etiology,  psychology
Appointments and Schedules*
Cataract / physiopathology,  psychology
Cataract Extraction / psychology*,  statistics & numerical data*
Data Collection
Female
Heart Rate / physiology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Patient Education as Topic
Patient Satisfaction
Transportation of Patients

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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