The Association Between Physicians' Communication and Patient Reported Outcomes in Spine Surgery.

<bold>Study Design: </bold>Retrospective cohort study using prospectively collected data OBJECTIVE.: Determine the association between satisfaction with physician communication and patient reported outcomes in the inpatient spine surgery setting.<bold>Summary Of Background Data: </bold>Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys measure the patient experience of care and influence reimbursement for hospital systems and providers in the United States. It is not known whether patient satisfaction with physician communication is associated with better outcomes following spine surgery. Therefore, we evaluated the association between patient satisfaction with physician communication on the HCAHPS survey and improvements in validated patient-reported outcomes measures in a spine surgery population.<bold>Methods: </bold>HCAHPS responses were obtained for patients undergoing elective cervical or lumbar spine surgery from 2013 to 2015. Patient reported health status measures were the primary outcomes, including EuroQol Five Dimensions (EQ-5D), Pain Disability Questionnaire (PDQ), and Visual Analog Scores for Back and Neck Pain (VAS-BP/NP). The association between satisfaction with communication and pre- to one-year postoperative changes in each health status measure were evaluated utilizing multivariable linear regression models.<bold>Results: </bold>Our study included 648 patients, of which, 479 (74.4%) created our satisfied cohort. Demographically, our two cohorts were similar with regards to pre-operative clinical measures, however the satisfied cohort had a higher self-rating of their mental health (p < 0.01), and overall health (p < 0.01). After adjusting for clinically relevant confounders, our results demonstrated no significant association between satisfaction with physician communication and improvement in EQ-5D (p = 0.312), PDQ (p = 0.498), or VAS pain scores (p = 0.592).<bold>Conclusion: </bold>Patient satisfaction with physician communication was not associated with one-year postoperative improvement in EQ-5D, PDQ, and VAS-Pain following spine surgery. These findings do not diminish the importance of effective communication between doctor and patient, but instead suggest that within the spine surgery setting, using only patient experience data may not accurately reflect the true quality of care received during their inpatient stay.<bold>Level Of Evidence: </bold>4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]