Rogero Ryan G, Bishop Meghan, Erickson Brandon J, Seigerman Daniel, Smith Daniel, Sodha Samir C, Yeon Howard, Tsai Justin
Orthopaedic Surgery, Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, Philadelphia, USA.
Orthopaedic Surgery, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA.
Cureus. 2020 Apr 17;12(4):e7712. doi: 10.7759/cureus.7712.
Introduction Orthopaedic surgeons choose to manage communication with their patients outside of official visits and interactions in a variety of ways, with some choosing to provide their personal cell phone number in order to provide patients with direct accessibility. The objective of this prospective study is to explore to what extent patients utilize the cell phone numbers of orthopaedic surgeons in the immediate period after it is provided to them. Methods Seven fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons from five different subspecialties in a single private, multi-site group each provided his/her personal cell phone number to 30 consecutive patients. The surgeon's phone number was written down on a business card, and the surgeons themselves provided the card to the patient. Phone calls and voice mail messages received in the 30 days following the patient receiving the phone number were recorded, and the reasons for these calls were categorized as being "appropriate" (e.g. acute postoperative issues, unclear instructions) or "inappropriate" (e.g. administrative issues, medication refills, advanced imaging-related inquires). Results Two-hundred seven patients with an average age of 51.5 years were provided cell phone numbers. During the 30 days following administration of cell phone numbers to each patient, 21 patients (10.1%) made calls to their surgeons, for an average of 0.15 calls per patient. Six patients (2.9%) called their surgeons more than once. Seventeen calls (54.8%) were deemed appropriate, while 14 calls (45.2%) were inappropriate. Logistic regression analysis did not reveal patient age, sex, type of visit, or surgeon subspecialty to be independently associated with calling. Conclusion Our study has demonstrated a low rate of patient utilization of surgeon cell phone number when provided to them. If surgeons choose to provide their cell phone number to patients, we recommend specifying appropriate reasons to call in order to maximize the effectiveness of this communication method.
引言
骨科医生会选择多种方式在正式就诊和互动之外与患者进行沟通，有些医生会提供自己的手机号码以便患者直接联系。这项前瞻性研究的目的是探讨患者在获得骨科医生手机号码后的短期内使用该号码的程度。
方法
来自一个单一的私立多地点集团中五个不同亚专业的七名经过 fellowship 培训的骨科医生，每人向连续的 30 名患者提供了自己的手机号码。医生的电话号码写在名片上，由医生本人将名片提供给患者。记录患者收到电话号码后的 30 天内接到的电话和语音邮件信息，并将这些电话的原因分类为“合适”（如术后急性问题、指示不明确）或“不合适”（如行政问题、药物续方、高级影像相关咨询）。
结果
共向 207 名平均年龄为 51.5 岁的患者提供了手机号码。在给每位患者提供手机号码后的 30 天内，21 名患者（10.1%）给他们的医生打电话，平均每位患者拨打 0.15 次。6 名患者（2.9%）给医生打了不止一次电话。17 个电话（54.8%）被认为是合适的，而 14 个电话（45.2%）是不合适的。逻辑回归分析未显示患者年龄、性别、就诊类型或医生亚专业与打电话有独立关联。
结论
我们的研究表明，当向患者提供外科医生的手机号码时，患者使用该号码的比例较低。如果外科医生选择向患者提供手机号码，我们建议明确说明打电话的合适理由，以最大限度地提高这种沟通方式的有效性。
