Inpatient Versus Outpatient Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: Which Has Higher Patient Satisfaction?

Background: More surgeons are offering patients the option of having adult reconstructive procedures performed as an outpatient at an ambulatory surgery center. However, it is unknown if these patients have higher or lower satisfaction with their care than patients having a traditional inpatient stay. The purpose of this study is to compare satisfaction between inpatients and outpatients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty.

Methods: Portions of the Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, the Friends and Family Test, and 8 additional questions were administered to 174 consecutive patients. There were 8 non-responders (95.4% response rate) leaving 102 who underwent inpatient and 64 who had outpatient surgery. Responses were stratified using the "boxes" scoring approach as recommended by Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems and analyzed with a chi-squared or Fischer's exact test where appropriate. Power analysis determined that 38 patients per group were needed to detect a 1-point difference in overall satisfaction between groups with 80% power and alpha of 0.05 considered significant.

Results: Outpatients responded with more top responses when asked about the staff's explanation of any medicines received (91.4% vs 77.5%, P = .026), the staff's assistance with their pain management (98.3% vs 88.0%, P = .022), the written health information they were given upon discharge (98.3% vs 90.1%, P = .05), and the courtesy and respect from the nurses (100.0% vs 92.2%, P = .022). Inpatients responded with more bottom responses when asked how prepared they felt for discharge home (8.9% vs 0.0%, P = .014). Top responses in overall satisfaction with the facility (87.1% vs 93.4%, P = .204) and overall experience (89.2% vs 95.2%, P = .177) were similar between inpatients and outpatients, respectively. Not surprisingly, inpatients were older (64.1 vs 59.2 years, P = .001), heavier (body mass index 32.7 vs 30.4, P = .035), and had higher Charlson comorbidity scores (2.6 vs 1.9, P = .002).

Conclusion: Although satisfaction was high in both groups, when differences were present they favored outpatient surgery in the ambulatory surgery center.