• Aishwarya K Pillai, John Guzzi, Miriam M Treggiari, N David Yanez, and Jaime B Hyman.
• Yale School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
• J Clin Anesth. 2023 Jun 1; 86: 111054111054.

Study ObjectiveStudies that track patient-centered outcomes are better suited to evaluate the relative benefits and harms of an intervention in ambulatory surgery as severe morbidity and mortality have become increasingly rare. This pilot study aimed to assess for differences in response rate and survey scores for phone-based and electronic administration of the Quality of Recovery-40 (QoR-40) survey in patients undergoing general anesthesia for ambulatory surgery.DesignA single-center prospective observational study.SettingYale New Haven Hospital (September 22-November 2, 2021).Patients100 consecutive patients undergoing ambulatory surgery under general anesthesia.InterventionsPatients were randomized to receive QoR-40 surveys via email or phone.MeasurementsThe QoR-40 survey is a 40-item questionnaire that provides a global score across five dimensions: patient support, comfort, emotions, physical independence, and pain. The primary outcome was the response rate following the administration of the QoR-40 survey on postoperative days 1, 2, and 7. The secondary outcome was the mean QoR-40 score during the study period.Main ResultsA total of 109 patients consented to participate and 100 patients were randomized in this study. A total of 76%, 72%, and 68% of patients completed the survey on POD 1, 2, and 7, respectively. There were no differences in the response rate of patients who completed the survey between phone (78%) versus electronic (74%) administration (difference 4%, 95% confidence interval (CI): -13%, 21%, respectively) on POD 1, 2 (74% vs 70%, difference 4%, 95% CI -14%, 22%, respectively) or 7 (68% vs 68%, difference 0%, 95% CI -18%, 18%, respectively). The mean (standard deviation) QoR-40 score was 176.2 (18.1), 179.8 (19.4), 187.7 (13.1) on POD 1, 2, and 7, respectively. There were no significant differences in the mean QoR-40 scores between groups at any of the time points.ConclusionThe response rate following the electronic administration of the QoR-40 survey did not differ from the phone-based administration during the postoperative period following ambulatory surgery. The use of an electronic version of the survey may allow for larger sample sizes with fewer resources utilized in future interventional studies.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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