Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Jan 16, 2018; 10(1): 23-29
Published online Jan 16, 2018. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v10.i1.23
Post-endoscopic procedure satisfaction scores: Can we improve?
Ankita Munjal, Joshua M Steinberg, Afnan Mossaad, Samuel J Kallus, Mark C Mattar, Nadim G Haddad
Ankita Munjal, Department of Internal Medicine, Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC 20007, United States
Joshua M Steinberg, Samuel J Kallus, Mark C Mattar, Nadim G Haddad, Department of Gastroenterology, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC 20007, United States
Afnan Mossaad, Department of Internal Medicine, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC 20010, United States
Author contributions: Steinberg JM, Kallus SJ and Mattar MC designed the study and obtained IRB approval; Munjal A, Steinberg JM, Kallus SJ and Mossaad A performed majority of the data collection; Munjal A and Steinberg JM wrote the manuscript; Kallus SJ, Mattar MC and Haddad NG were involved in the editing of the manuscript.
Supported by MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Department of Gastroenterology, No. 2016-0200.
Institutional review board statement: Study met criteria for approval by IRB at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
Informed consent statement: Consent was not obtained but the presented data are anonymized and risk of identification is low.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to disclose for all of the authors of this manuscript.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at Ankita.munjal@gunet.georgetown.edu. Consent was not obtained but the presented data are anonymized and risk of identification is low.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ankita Munjal, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, 3800 Reservoir Rd. 5 PHC, Washington, DC 20007, United States. ankita.munjal@gunet.georgetown.edu
Telephone: +1-615-4239925 Fax: +1-877-3031460
Received: August 6, 2017
Peer-review started: August 7, 2017
First decision: August 29, 2017
Revised: September 25, 2017
Accepted: December 5, 2017
Article in press: December 5, 2017
Published online: January 16, 2018
Processing time: 161 Days and 9.5 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To organize post-procedure satisfaction data into a useful reference and analyze patient-centered parameters to find trends that influence patient satisfaction.

METHODS

A robust database of two cohorts of outpatients that underwent an endoscopic procedure at Georgetown University Hospital at two separate three-month intervals ranging from November 2012 to January 2013 and November 2015 to January 2016 was compiled. Time of year was identical to control for weather/seasonal issues that may have contributed to the patient experience. The variables recorded included age, sex, body mass index (BMI), type of procedure, indication for procedure, time of the procedure, length of the procedure, type of prep used, endoscopist, satisfactory score, and comments/reasons for score. For continuous variables, differences in averages were tested by two sample t-test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, and ANOVA as appropriate. For categorical variables, differences in proportions between two groups were tested by χ2 test. Correlation test and linear regression analyses were conducted to examine relationships between length of procedure and continuous predictors. A P value < 0.05 used to indicate statistically significant relationship.

RESULTS

The primary outcome of this study was to assess if telephone outreach after an endoscopic intervention was a satisfactory method of obtaining post-procedure satisfaction scores from patients at a tertiary care center. With the addition of post-procedure calls, instilled in January 2014, the response rate was 40.5% (508/1256 patients) from a prior completion rate of 3.4% (31/918) with the mail out survey initially. There was a statistically significant improved response rate pre and post intervention with P < 0001. The secondary outcome of this study was to assess if we could use predictive analytics to identify independent predictors of procedure length, such as gender, age, type of procedure, time of procedure, or BMI. The combined pre and post intervention data was used in order to optimize the power to identify independent predictors of procedure length. The total number of patient’s data analyzed was 2174. There was no statistically significant difference in procedure length between males and females with P value 0.5282. However, there was a small (1 min), but statistically significant difference (P = 0.0185) in procedure length based on the time of day the procedure took place, with afternoon procedures having a longer duration than morning procedures. The type of procedure was an independent predictor of procedure length as demonstrated with P value < 0.0001. There is a statistically significant correlation between age and procedure length, although it is only a weak relationship with a correlation coefficient < 0.3. Contrary to patient age, BMI did not have a statistically significant correlation with procedure length (P = 0.9993), which was also confirmed by linear regression analysis.

CONCLUSION

Our study proves calling patients after endoscopy improves post-procedure satisfaction response rates and changing procedural time allotment based on patient characteristics would not change endoscopic workflow.

Keywords: Survey; Quality improvement; Patient satisfaction

Core tip: We analyzed the post-endoscopy survey system that had been implemented and largely ignored in the past in order to understand where we are succeeding and failing in our endoscopy suite in regards to the overall patient experience. We also looked at patient-centered parameters that could influence procedure length, which is a common surrogate for satisfaction, to reflect on current practices and allow for process improvements in order to optimize the patient experience in our endoscopy suite.