Interventional Pain procedures and patient satisfaction

[gator2886]

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I am told that "table time" is the driving factor in patient satisfaction for interventional pain procedures. In other words if it is done quickly that patients are very satisfied. In light of the ever more restrictive sedation guidelines I would like to see if someone can reference this

 

[Ferrismonk]

Who told you that?

 

[jsaul]

that is not true, if you do the procedure too fast when they are awake they will think nothing was really done.

 

[SommeRiver]

This very much incorrect

 

[Dr. Ice]

Depends on whether or not they get better following your fast or slow injection

 

[gdub25]

that is not true, if you do the procedure too fast when they are awake they will think nothing was really done.

You’re welcome to come visit our practice, we’ll pay your way, and you can see if maybe you change your position. That’s just goofy to think such a thing.

To the original question, I agree and think if you’re quick and have a good bedside manner to keep their attention off what you’re doing they are happier. We give no sedation at all, rarely a Valium, and every singe day we hear “oh, that was it!?” as they smile a sigh of relief.

 

[SSdoc33]

Theres something to this school of thought

 

[SommeRiver]

A spine surgeon in our group does his own epidurals and finishes them in 2 min...At most 2 min...Pts hate him. He hurts. I do follow up injxns frequently on his patients and they always tell me how much easier it was with me, and he's faster than I am.

There's more to this than simple time as the clock moves.

 

[callmeanesthesia]

I think there’s a balance, and it differs per patient. Some want to be distracted by talking about sports or music. Some want to know every step as you go. Some will appreciate you going as fast as possible, and others will take this as a sign of greed and sloppiness.
Even for more technically difficult injections I generally find patients accepting when I explain as I go why it’s taking longer than usual, or warn them beforehand that due to their anatomy it may take a little more time than usual.

 

[Orin]

I suspect happiness vs time has a sweet ground in the middle where people are happy with things that take about 10 - 20' but hate anything that's too fast <5' or too long >30'. That satisfaction window likely change depend upon the pre-medication/sedation, expectations, and procedure itself.

I tend to under promise as much as I can to lower expectations greatly.

 

[Ducttape]

I have heard that, and have recently heard a corollary - what is most important to patient satisfaction is the speed at which a patient gets in to see a new "provider", and patients don't care if it isn't who the primary care physician refers to or the reputation of the pain physician.


of course, these are not doctors or even providers telling me this...

 

[SSdoc33]

the notion that the patient wants a longer time on the table to feel like something legitimate has been done is ludicrous.

the patients want 1 thing: to be off of that table as quickly as possible. i will sacrifice a little bit of discomfort if it means a quicker procedure (IE: no local with a TFESI). the longer you muck around in there, the more tissue trauma, post injection soreness, radiation exposure, and risk of infection. get in, get out, move on.

 

[ahmedt]

I think post injections time makes a much bigger difference than intra-op. Show them your fluoro pic with a brief explanation and even if the injection Hurts andor doesn’t work, they are less likely to consider it a technical failure.

 

[Orin]

I have heard that, and have recently heard a corollary - what is most important to patient satisfaction is the speed at which a patient gets in to see a new "provider", and patients don't care if it isn't who the primary care physician refers to or the reputation of the pain physician.


of course, these are not doctors or even providers telling me this...

!!! We must increase "access"