Routine follow-up office visits after total joint replacement - Do asymptomatic patients wish to comply?

A total of 100 patients presenting for routine office follow-up after total hip or knee arthroplasty completed questionnaires evaluating whether they preferred to come to the office for routine follow-up evaluation or whether they would have preferred an evaluation without an office visit. Of 100 pa tients, 45 would have preferred not to come into the office for a routine e valuation. They were content to mail completed questionnaires and radiograp hs to their physicians. The other 55 patients preferred office visits. Thes e 2 groups were comparable for age, sex, height, weight, and number of surg eries (P >.11) Preoperative and postoperative scores were similar between t he 2 groups (P >.39). None of the patients that would have preferred nor to come in to the office believed that quality of care would be compromised. A significant number (45%) of patients would prefer not to come to the offi ce because of the wages saved and time spared. Routine office visits may be eliminated for these patients through the use of health outcome devices, s uch as the SF-36, along with routine radiographs. The potential to decrease healthcare costs and increase patient satisfaction warrants the identifica tion of these patients. Assessment of the effect on quality of care with el imination of routine follow-up visits requires further study.