Jongchan Lee, Soyeon Ahn, Jung Hun Ohn, Eun Sun Kim, Yejee Lim, Hye Won Kim, Hee-Sun Park, Jae Ho Cho, Sun-Wook Kim, Jiwon Ryu, Jihye Kim, Hak Chul Jang, Nak-Hyun Kim
{"title":"Effect of SMS Ward Round Notifications on Inpatient Experience in Acute Medical Settings: Retrospective Cohort Study.","authors":"Jongchan Lee, Soyeon Ahn, Jung Hun Ohn, Eun Sun Kim, Yejee Lim, Hye Won Kim, Hee-Sun Park, Jae Ho Cho, Sun-Wook Kim, Jiwon Ryu, Jihye Kim, Hak Chul Jang, Nak-Hyun Kim","doi":"10.2196/57470","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Ward rounds are an essential component of inpatient care. Patient participation in rounds is increasingly encouraged, despite the occasional complicated circumstances, especially in acute care settings.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>This study aimed to evaluate the effect of real-time ward round notifications using SMS text messaging on the satisfaction of inpatients in an acute medical ward.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Since January 2021, a service implementing real-time ward round notifications via text messaging (WR-SMS) has been operational at a tertiary-care medical center in Korea. To assess its impact, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to the acute medical unit who participated in a patient experience survey. Patient satisfaction was compared between patients admitted in 2020 (pre-WR-SMS group) and 2021 (post-WR-SMS group).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>From January 2020 to December 2021, a total of 100 patients were enrolled (53 patients in the pre-WR-SMS group and 47 patients in the post-WR-SMS group). Compared with the pre-WR-SMS group, the post-WR-SMS group showed significantly greater satisfaction about being informed about round schedules (mean 3.43, SD 0.910 vs mean 3.89, SD 0.375; P<.001) and felt more emotionally supported during admission (mean 3.49, SD 0.800 vs mean 3.87, SD 0.397; P<.001). Regarding other questionnaire scores, the post-WR-SMS group showed an overall, although statistically insignificant, improvement compared with the pre-WR-SMS group.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Real-time round notifications using a user-friendly SMS may improve inpatient satisfaction effectively.</p>","PeriodicalId":36351,"journal":{"name":"JMIR Human Factors","volume":"12 ","pages":"e57470"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11922492/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JMIR Human Factors","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2196/57470","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Ward rounds are an essential component of inpatient care. Patient participation in rounds is increasingly encouraged, despite the occasional complicated circumstances, especially in acute care settings.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of real-time ward round notifications using SMS text messaging on the satisfaction of inpatients in an acute medical ward.
Methods: Since January 2021, a service implementing real-time ward round notifications via text messaging (WR-SMS) has been operational at a tertiary-care medical center in Korea. To assess its impact, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to the acute medical unit who participated in a patient experience survey. Patient satisfaction was compared between patients admitted in 2020 (pre-WR-SMS group) and 2021 (post-WR-SMS group).
Results: From January 2020 to December 2021, a total of 100 patients were enrolled (53 patients in the pre-WR-SMS group and 47 patients in the post-WR-SMS group). Compared with the pre-WR-SMS group, the post-WR-SMS group showed significantly greater satisfaction about being informed about round schedules (mean 3.43, SD 0.910 vs mean 3.89, SD 0.375; P<.001) and felt more emotionally supported during admission (mean 3.49, SD 0.800 vs mean 3.87, SD 0.397; P<.001). Regarding other questionnaire scores, the post-WR-SMS group showed an overall, although statistically insignificant, improvement compared with the pre-WR-SMS group.
Conclusions: Real-time round notifications using a user-friendly SMS may improve inpatient satisfaction effectively.