Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To determine if patient satisfaction of virtual clinical encounters is noninferior to traditional in-office clinical encounters for postoperative follow-up after reconstructive surgery for pelvic organ prolapse. METHODS: This was a randomized controlled noninferiority trial of women undergoing surgery for pelvic organ prolapse. Women were recruited and randomized during their preoperative counseling visit to virtual clinical encounters via video conference technology or in-office clinical encounters for their 30-day postoperative follow-up visits. The primary outcome was patient satisfaction measured by the validated Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire-18 (score range, 18-90, with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction) administered by telephone following the 30-day visit. Additional information regarding demographics, postoperative health care utilization, and complications was collected via chart review and compared between groups. RESULTS: A total of 52 women were randomly assigned to virtual clinical encounters via videoconference technology or traditional in-office clinical encounters (26 per group). The mean patient satisfaction score was 80.7 ± 2.6 in the virtual group and 81.2 ± 2.8 in the office group (difference, -0.46 points; 95% confidence interval, -1.95 to 1.03), which was consistent with noninferiority. Postoperative complication rates were 31% in the virtual group and 46% in the office group (P = 0.3). There were no significant between-group differences in secondary measures of unscheduled telephone calls (88% versus 77%, P = 0.5) and office visits (35% versus 38%, P = 0.8), emergency room visits (15% versus 19%, P = 1.0), and hospital readmissions (4% versus 12%, P = 0.6) within 90 days of surgery. CONCLUSIONS: For patients with pelvic organ prolapse undergoing reconstructive surgery, postoperative virtual clinical encounters via video conference technology are noninferior to traditional in-office clinical encounters with high levels of short-term patient satisfaction and no differences in postoperative health care utilization and complications rates.