Improving the outcome of outpatient cataract surgery in Germany through evaluation of both patient satisfaction and objective result quality
Session Details
Session Title: Presented Poster Session: Cataract Surgery Outcomes
Venue: Poster Village: Pod 1
First Author: : O.Eloka GERMANY
Co Author(s): : F. Rombold C. Niederdellmann
Abstract Details
Purpose:
Within the scope of this health care research project, medical parameters and patient satisfaction in the outpatient cataract surgery in Germany are collected, analyzed and evaluated. The results are used to support surgery centers with the planning, organization and optimization of patient care in Germany.
Setting:
Many cataract surgeons are interested in further improving cataract surgery. Since 2015, all patients undergoing cataract surgery at seven different surgery centers across Germany have been recruited for this observational study.
Methods:
Cooperating ophthalmologists documented medical and psychological data (through a face-to-face interview) across the whole cataract treatment cycle for more than two years. A total of 15355 datasets were collected. Based on these datasets, different objective and subjective quality characteristics were analyzed for each surgery center separately and then compared with the results of the other surgery centers (benchmarking).
Results:
Basically, our results point to a good outpatient cataract surgery in Germany. This is reflected by a positive assessment of the outcome of the surgery by the patients in all participating surgery centers. Furthermore, the postoperative visual acuity c.c. was greater than 0.8 for 75% of the surgeries across all surgery centers. Objective and subjective outcome, for the most part, did not deteriorate over time. However, only 58% of the surgeries reached a refraction close to the target refraction (i.e. within ±0.5 diopters of the target refraction). In addition, objective outcome varied considerably across surgery centers.
Conclusions:
We found that the outcome of the cataract surgery in Germany, though basically good, leaves room for optimization. Against this background, continuous monitoring represents an important instrument in improving outcome in outpatient cataract surgery. In view of the excellent availability of data, we aim at using classification, regression and cluster analysis in order to gain a better understanding of the numerous factors surrounding outpatient cataract surgery. With these methods, it will be possible to adapt the treatment path to the respective environment of the surgery center and the predisposition of the patient, thus potentially advancing the individual treatment success.
Financial Disclosure:
is employed by a for-profit company with an interest in the subject of the presentation
