Provision of a clinical practice guidelines leaflet improves levels of satisfaction for patients suffering from shoulder pain: A randomized crossover trial

Abstract

IntroductionEvidence based clinical practice guidelines (EB-CPGs) are recommended in order to improve the quality of healthcare. The objective of this study was to assess whether providing an EB-CPG leaflet improved the level of satisfaction of patients with shoulder pain. MethodsA randomized crossover study was conducted in Gwangju Korean Medicine Hospital of Wonkwang University. Fifty participants were randomly assigned to one of two different sequences – Sequence 1: Korean medicine (KM) treatment with EB-CPG leaflet – without- EB-CPG leaflet or Sequence 2: KM treatment without EB-CPG leaflet – with EB-CPG leaflet. The washout period between the two methods was two weeks. The main outcome was patient satisfaction throughout the treatment procedure (scored on a 5-point Likert scale) that had five items: satisfaction with the KM doctor's (KMD's) explanation, understanding of the KMD's explanation, improvement in the reliability of KM, satisfaction with the treatment time, and overall satisfaction. ResultsThe results indicated that KM treatment with the EB-CPG leaflet had a considerably greater impact in patient improvement than KM treatment with no leaflet on total patient satisfaction (P = 0.026). Patients perceived ‘reliability of KM treatments’ was higher in the KM treatment with a leaflet than in the treatment group with no leaflet (P = 0.0004). ConclusionDespite this short-term intervention, KM treatment with a leaflet that included EB-CPG information was shown to be an effective method of communication for patients being treated for shoulder pain. The efficiency of this EB-CPG-based communication tool should be further explored.