Ambulatory orthopaedic surgery patient education and cost of care

To describe and compare ambulatory orthopaedic surgery patients' reported cost of care (out-of-pocket costs, use of time, and consultations with healthcare organizations) and nurses' cost of care (use of time and consultations with other professionals such as other nurses, physicians, and anesthesiologists) when patients receive 2 different types of patient education (Internet-based or face-to-face).

Pretest/posttest design.

Random assignment of all ambulatory orthopaedic surgery patients in a university hospital in Finland.

The experimental group received Web-based patient education and the control group received face-to-face patient education.

Financial and time costs.

Pre-, intra-, and postoperative costs did not differ between the groups. However, Internet-based education was more time-consuming for the patient and face-to-face education was more time-consuming for the nurse. There were no differences between the groups in patients' use of consultations of healthcare professionals. Nurses' consultations were few and did not differ between the groups. The small number of patients' and nurses' consultations indicates that patients in both education methods had enough knowledge to deal with the surgery.