Disclosures: Allison N. Schroeder, MD: Nothing to disclose

Objective: To determine if receiving written information about procedures performed in the sports medicine clinic improved patient’s understanding of the treatment recommendation.

Design: Pre-post within subjects design.

Setting: Outpatient Sports Medicine clinic.

Participants: Fifty-nine subjects who completed the pre- and post-intervention survey.

Interventions: Handouts describing ultrasound-guided sports medicine procedures (prolotherapy injection, platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection, Tenex procedure, Sonex procedure, diagnostic injection, tendon scraping, and hydrodissection) were distributed to patients who were candidates to undergo the respective procedure. The handouts described an overview of the procedure, indications, contraindications, benefits, risks, and peri-procedural recommendations. They served as a supplement to the physician and patient discussion.

Main Outcome Measures: Patient reported knowledge of the procedure was recorded on an ordinal scale (0 representing very little knowledge and 10 representing extensive knowledge) before and after patients received the handout. Descriptive statistics and paired t test were used in data calculation.

Results: Fifty-nine patients completed the survey before and after reading the respective handout. Twenty-seven patients received the handout on PRP, sixteen on prolotherapy, eleven on Tenex, one on diagnostic injection, one on tendon scraping, two on hydrodissection, and one subject completed the survey but did not indicate which handout he/she received. Average knowledge level reported by the subjects was 1.7 prior to receiving the handouts and 8.2 after reading the handouts with an average change in knowledge of 6.5 points (P<.001).

Conclusions: Distribution of written informational handouts for procedures commonly offered in Sports Medicine clinics improves the patient’s understanding of these procedures and could serve as a supplement to the physician’s discussion of the procedure. This information can easily be incorporated into the electronic medical record and distributed to patients as part of the after-visit summary.

Level of Evidence: Level I

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/informational-patient-handouts-for-procedures-performed-in-sports-medicine-clinic-a-quality-improvement-project/