Reducing family members' anxiety while waiting on the day of surgery: Systematic review of studies and implications of HIPAA health information privacy rules

Study Objective: To investigate changes that most surgical suites will need to make in the process of giving reports to family members on the day of s urgery by the compliance date (April 14, 2003) of the privacy regulations o f the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996. Design: Systematic review of the medical literature on ways in which provid ing information to family members changes their anxiety. Measurements: The endpoints of the controlled studies included Spielberger State Anxiety. The observational studies reported percentages of family mem bers with a specify concern. Main Results: An in-person progress report can reduce family members' anxie ty, but this is not always. A personal approach is superior to providing pa gers or a phone call. Observational studies suggest that family members wan t information specific to their relative, particularly if the case is runni ng later than expected. Statistical methods exist to provide such an estima te of the time remaining in surgical cases. Conclusions: Surgical facilities should strive to provide in-person progres s reports to family members while their relatives are undergoing surgery. T o satisfy HIPAA regulations, the staff and physicians who talk to family me mbers in the waiting room will need to determine first if the patient has a greed to the release of information. As hospital information systems are up dated to assure that this process is HIPAA-compliant, facilities can also i ncorporate the relevant statistical methods. (C) 2001 by Elsevier Science I nc.