Engaging Patients to Ask More Questions: What's the Best Way? A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE

Hand conditions are common, and often require a discussion of the tradeoffs of different treatment options. Our goal was to evaluate whether providing patients with a Question Prompt List (QPL) for common hand conditions improves their perceived involvement in care compared with providing patients with 3 generic questions.

METHODS

We performed a prospective, single-center, pragmatic randomized controlled trial. We created a QPL pamphlet for patients with common hand conditions. New patients with common hand conditions were enrolled between April 2019 and July 2019 and were randomized into either the QPL group (with 35 hand-specific questions) or the AskShareKnow group (3 generic questions: [1] What are my options? [2] What are the possible benefits and harms of those options? [3] How likely are each of these benefit and harms to happen to me?). Both groups received the questions prior to meeting with their surgeon. We used the Perceived Involvement in Care Scale (PICS), a validated instrument designed to evaluate patient participation in decision-making, as our primary outcome. The maximum PICS score is 13, and a higher score indicates higher perceived involvement.

RESULTS

One hundred twenty-six patients participated in the study, with 63 patients in the QPL group and 63 patients in the AskShareKnow group. The demographic characteristics were similar in the 2 groups. The mean AskShareKnow group PICS score was 8.3 ± 2.2 and the mean QPL PICS score was 7.5 ± 2.8, which was not deemed clinically significant.

CONCLUSIONS

The QPLs do not increase perceived involvement in care in patients with hand conditions compared with providing patients with 3 generic questions.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Various approaches have been evaluated to help improve patient involvement in their care. In hand surgery, 3 generic questions were no different than a lengthy QPL with respect to patient involvement in their care.