"Are we there yet?"- factors affecting postoperative follow-up after general surgery procedures

Surgical follow-up allows patients to discuss pathology and preventative maintenance. Multiple factors impact patients' compliance with surgical follow-up. We hypothesized that increased travel time would be associated with lack of post-discharge surgical follow-up.

Retrospective analysis identified patients undergoing laparoscopic appendectomy or laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression assessed the relationship between patient characteristics and post-discharge follow-up.

We identified 1830 patients from 2015-2016. 31% did not complete follow-up, were more likely to have had an appendectomy, be un- or underinsured, not married, and live outside North Carolina. Median round-trip travel time was not significantly different. After adjustment for patient factors, each additional 10 min of travel time increased the odds of not following up by 6% (p < 0.01).

Travel time was the only modifiable factor associated with post-discharge follow-up. Novel methods of completing follow-up that minimize travel time, such as virtual visits, may increase compliance with recommended follow-up.