Improving post-injury follow-up survey response: incorporating automated modalities

TL;DR

This study shows that using automated methods like email and text can improve follow-up survey responses from trauma patients, helping track outcomes better.

Contribution

The study introduces and validates a low-cost automated follow-up system to improve survey response rates in trauma care.

Findings

Response rates increased by 17.9 percentage points when automated methods were used.

Email and text became the primary response modalities in the second protocol.

Automated follow-up is feasible for collecting longitudinal data in trauma registries.

Abstract

Incorporating post-discharge data into trauma registries would allow for better research on patient outcomes, including disparities in outcomes. This pilot study tested a follow-up data collection process to be incorporated into existing trauma care systems, prioritizing low-cost automated response modalities.

This investigation was part of a larger study that consisted of two protocols with two distinct cohorts of participants who experienced traumatic injury. Participants in both protocols were asked to provide phone, email, text, and mail contact information to complete follow-up surveys assessing patient-reported outcomes six months after injury. To increase follow-up response rates between protocol 1 and protocol 2, the study team modified the contact procedures for the protocol 2 cohort. Frequency distributions were utilized to report the frequency of follow-up response modalities and overall response rates in both protocols.

A total of 178 individuals responded to the 6-month follow-up survey: 88 in protocol 1 and 90 in protocol 2. After implementing new follow-up contact procedures in protocol 2 that relied more heavily on the use of automated modalities (e.g., email and text messages), the response rate increased by 17.9 percentage points. The primary response modality shifted from phone (72.7%) in protocol 1 to the combination of email (47.8%) and text (14.4%) in protocol 2.

Results from this investigation suggest that follow-up data can feasibly be collected from trauma patients. Use of automated follow-up methods holds promise to expand longitudinal data in the national trauma registry and broaden the understanding of disparities in patient experiences.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40621-024-00531-3.

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