Barriers and Facilitators of Outcome Collection During Hand Surgery Outreach: A Quality Improvement Study

Surgical outreach trips to low- and middle-income countries have been increasing. Outcome collection on these trips, however, has been inconsistent and often incomplete. We conducted a qualitative study of surgeons, administrators, and patients to identify the barriers and facilitators to outcome collection on hand surgery outreach trips to Hospital 175 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

A purposive sample of surgeons, administrators, and patients from Hospital 175 were interviewed about their beliefs regarding outcome collection. We used a semi-structured interview guide based on the Theoretical Domains Framework to systematically explore barriers and facilitators. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using content analysis. Beliefs underlying similar responses were identified and aggregated to describe barriers and facilitators of outcome measurement.

Twelve surgeons and administrative staff (3 visiting and 9 local) and 5 patients were interviewed before saturation was achieved. All stakeholders believed outcome collection on hand surgery outreach trips is important. Barriers identified were primarily related to environmental context and resources (eg, cost of returning) and memory, attention, and decision process (eg, difficulty in remembering patient follow-up intervals). The most commonly identified barriers address the distance patients live from the hospital/clinic, the resources required for them to return, and the lack of an organized system to assist in follow-up.

Multiple barriers to outcome collection exist at Hospital 175 in Vietnam. Understanding these barriers informs context-specific implementation approaches to collect outcomes on hand surgery outreach trips, which may improve the safety and quality of care provided.