Login to Access Video or Poster Abstract: MP40-20
Sources of Funding: None

Introduction

Inspired by our experience with handling long-term vaginal mesh complications, we aimed to assess practitioner&[prime]s interest in being made aware of their long-term surgical complications.

Methods

Prior to a lecture on this topic, a 3 question survey (table 1) was administered to 16 faculty operative surgeons (FS) in the Department of Urology and to 59 future attendants who had enrolled to attend the lecture, including private practice urologists, nurse and midlevel providers. Long-term complications were defined as those involving re-admissions or reoperations beyond 30 days post-surgery as those are not captured by most quality improvement programs and not reported in Morbidity and Mortality conferences.

Results

Of the 16 FS, 100% answered that doctors should be alerted of their post-surgical complications (question 1). And, of the lecture attendants, 95.6% also stated they wished to be alerted (10 skipped). Based on the second question on reasons for why we do not contact each other when we are made aware of a long-term complication, 60% of the FS and 53% of the attendants believed that a surgeon might not want to offend or lose a referral base. 13% of FS and 21% of attendants believed that surgeons not knowing his/her own outcomes data was a possible reason. 13% of surgeons and 21% of the attendants believe that the unwillingness to want to increase the operative surgeon&[prime]s legal risk could be a reason. 20% of surgeons and 17% of attendants believed that a surgeon might not think feedback decreases complication risks. Lastly 73% of FS and 72% of attendants believed that a surgeon being too busy to track down whom to contact is a primary reason. As far as the best method of providing this long-term tracking data (question 3), 94% of the FS and 84% of the attendants answered that a phone call was the best means for this feedback. The practicality of providing this feedback is hampered by unintended consequences of legal mandates related to patient protected health information.

Conclusions

Despite legal barriers in place prohibiting this process, this data suggest that operative surgeons and most urology care providers are interested in receiving information on their long-term post-surgical complications.

Funding

None