Do Patients Want to Know about Surgeon Experience?

We assess patient interest in obtaining information on surgeon training as part of informed consent before undergoing a "new" procedure.

After receiving institutional review board approval a survey was administered by neutral third parties to patients at 2 outpatient settings. Exclusion criteria were reading level below sixth grade, nonEnglish speakers and pregnancy. Demographic data included age and race as gender was controlled for only females. Occupational health care background was investigated at clinic 2 only. The survey included the 3 components of the REALM-SF (rapid adult literacy estimate based on 7 medical words), STAI-X2 (trait anxiety questionnaire) and a specifically designed observer questionnaire with yes/no answers. This questionnaire included question 1 (Q1)-Should the consent form include the number of times a surgeon has performed this type of new surgery? and question 2 (Q2)-Should a consent form include when the surgeon started to perform this new surgery? Descriptive statistics were used.

There were 22 patients at location 1 and 97 at location 2 who met the study inclusion criteria. Overall 77.3% of patients from both locations wanted to obtain this information (ie answered yes to Q1 and Q2). Age (p=0.0153) and race (p=0.0250) were statistically significant factors for Q1 but not for Q2. REALM-SF and STAI-X2 scores did not significantly affect responses at either location, nor did occupational health care background at clinic 2.

Three-quarters of the women queried would like to know more about their surgeon's expertise with a new type of procedure before consenting to it.