Validation of an m-Health solution for the follow-up of post-operative patients of ambulatory surgery

The rationale behind the need to improve the communication between the Ambulatory Surgery Unit and the patients at home after discharge from ambulatory surgery is to offer a healthcare quality at home comparable to hospital care. Nowadays this improvement is needed, taking into account that more complex operations and patients with higher co morbidity are being included in these programs. This paper presents the results of a randomized prospective study of an m-Health system for post-operative monitoring of patients in the early ambulatory surgery home postoperative process. About 310 patients, with surgeries comparable in complexity, were randomly selected and included in either the intervention or the control group. The results shows that the phone control protocol at home in postoperative process is very efficient in terms of the quality of information received and also in the resolution of late minor complications even compared with the most traditional ways of care.