Comparing Email, SMS, and Concurrent Mixed Modes Approaches to Capture Quality of Recovery in the Perioperative Period: Retrospective Longitudinal Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: As patients are discharged from the hospital more quickly, the ability to monitor patient recovery between hospital discharge and the first follow-up clinic visit is becoming increasingly important. Despite substantial increase in both internet use and smartphone ownership over the past 5 years, clinicians have been slow to embrace the use of these devices to capture patient recovery information in the period between hospital discharge and the first clinical follow-up appointment. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the generalizability of using a web-based platform to capture patient recovery in a broad surgical patient population and compare response rates for 3 different web-based strategies for delivering recovery surveys over the perioperative period: email, SMS text messaging, and a concurrent mixed approach of using both email and SMS text messaging. METHODS: Patients undergoing surgeries managed with an enhanced recovery after surgery pathway were asked to participate in a web-based quality assurance monitoring program at the time of their preoperative surgery appointment. Different follow-up methods were implemented over 3 sequential phases. Patients received Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–compliant web-based survey links via email (phase 1), SMS text messaging (phase 2), or concurrently using both email and SMS text messaging (phase 3) using REDCap and Twilio software. Recovery assessments using the established Quality of Recovery-9 instrument were performed 4 days before surgery and at 7 and 30 days postoperatively. Generalizability of the web-based system was examined by comparing characteristics of those who participated versus those who did not. Differences in response rates by the web-based collection method were analyzed using adjusted models. RESULTS: A total of 615 patients were asked to participate, with 526 (85.5%) opting for the follow-up program. Those who opted in were younger, slightly healthier, and more likely to be in a partnership. The concurrent mixed modes method was the most successful for obtaining responses at each time point compared with text or email alone (pre: 119/160, 74.4% vs 116/173, 67.1% vs 56/130, 43.1%, P<.001; 7 days: 115/172, 66.9% vs 82/164, 50.0% vs 59/126, 46.8%, P=.001; 30 days: 152/234, 65.0% vs 52/105, 49.5% vs 53/123, 43.1%, P=.001, respectively). In the adjusted model, the concurrent mixed modes method significantly predicted response compared with using email alone (odds ratio 3.4; P<.001) and SMS text messaging alone (odds ratio 1.9; P<.001). Additional significant predictors of response were race, partnership, and time. CONCLUSIONS: For internet users and smartphone owners, electronic capture of recovery surveys appear to be possible through this mechanism. Discrepancies in both inclusion and response rates still exist among certain subgroups of patients, but the concurrent approach of using both email and text messages was the most effective approach to reach the largest number of patients across all subgroups.