Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) represent the most common acute illnesses in the general population and account for the leading acute diagnoses in the outpatient setting. Given the athlete's expectation to return to activity as soon as possible, the sports medicine physician should be able to accurately diagnose and aggressively treat these illnesses. This article discusses the common pathogens, diagnosis, treatment options, and return-to-play decisions for URTIs, with a focus on the common cold, sinusitis, pharyngitis, and infectious mononucleosis in the athlete.
Background: With evolving reimbursement patterns and an emphasis on value-based care, patient satisfaction is increasingly becoming a more important metric. However, there remains a dearth of literature examining potential strategies to improve patient satisfaction in the outpatient setting. This study investigates if overall perception of care is influenced by providing biosketch cards to new patients in an outpatient Sports Medicine clinic. Methods: 144 new patients were assigned to an intervention group based on the date of visit from 3/2017 to 8/2017. Eligible patients received a treating physician biosketch card (Group A), clinical practice biosketch card (Group B) or no additional literature (Control group) during the clinic check-out process. Via email, patients were asked to rate: 1-quality of care, 2-treated with courtesy and respect, 3-listened to carefully, 4-was explained things in a way you could understand, 5-overall rating, 6-recommend to family and friend? We also collected age, gender, level of education, and response time. The three groups were compared. Results: 96 (66.7%) patients responded with 32 patients in each group (physician biosketch, clinic biosketch, no intervention). There were no significant demographic differences between the groups. The average age was 51.8 years with 52% being male. Mean time from visit to response was 1.6 days. The only significant difference occurred for rating "how would you rate your orthopedic doctor with treating you with courtesy and respect?", however, post hoc analysis failed to reveal a significant difference in response between each study group. There was no statistical difference between the remaining questions on patient satisfaction. Conclusion: Increasing a new patient's awareness, via physician or clinic information sheets, has no added benefit for patient satisfaction in the outpatient sports medicine setting.
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