Postoperative Patient Portal Messaging Is Associated With Return to the Emergency Department After Lumbar Spine Surgery.

Study Design: Retrospective study.

Objective: To explore the association between patients undergoing lumbar spine surgery who message their care team via an electronic patient portal (EPP) postoperatively and emergency department (ED) visits within 90 days of surgery.

Summary Of Background Data: Secure patient messaging through electronic patient portals has grown over recent years. Despite its frequent utilization by patients to engage with their care team, its association with clinical outcomes remains unknown in spine surgery.

Materials And Methods: This study was approved by our Institutional Review Board. Inclusion criteria were adults who underwent single-stage lumbar spine surgery between January 2016 and June 2023. Patients with incomplete information, multistage surgeries, and those who died within 90 days of surgery were excluded. Patient sociodemographic, surgical, hospital readmission, and patient-provider engagement data were collected.

Results: A total of 13,135 patients were included. A total of 1711 patients (13%) had a postoperative ED visit, and 4791 patients (36%) used the patient portal to send a message after surgery. Sending a postoperative patient message after undergoing lumbar spine surgery was associated with an increased likelihood of having an ED visit that does not lead to readmission (1.29 [1.10-1.53], P = 0.002). Patients with high school degrees were more likely to have an ED visit without readmission (1.33 [1.08-1.65], P = 0.008).

Conclusion: Patients at a higher risk of presenting to the ED postoperatively should be identified and may benefit from additional counseling and access to the care team virtually to limit unnecessary healthcare utilization. Focusing on patients who reach out via EPP messaging postoperatively may be a good target patient group to address first. Future research is needed to investigate the possible health literacy and other socioeconomic barriers affecting these patients so that appropriate, more cost-effective resources can be utilized to avoid clinically unnecessary and costly ED visits.