The benefits of providing information to patients

There is growing recognition within the National Health Service (NHS) of the value of providing patients with information about hospital and pre- and post-operative procedures, particularly in response to concerns about quality assurance and consumer satisfaction. Moreover, there is evidence that the provision of such information pre-operatively to surgical patients can reduce levels of anxiety and depression and significantly affect the course of recovery, facilitating faster convalescence and potentially reducing length of hospital stay, medication use and follow up visits. This paper critically reviews the available evidence concerning the impact of the provision if information on psychological and clinical outcome for the patient and also the resource consequences for the NHS. It concludes that major issues are still relatively unclear due to the lack of well designed and comprehensive research in this area. It offers an analysis of the results of other studies, and a detailed outline of future research which it would be useful to undertake in order to clarify both the costs and the clinical and economic benefits of the provision of information. It is concluded that there is evidence to suggest that patients want more detailed information about medical and surgical procedures and that there are psychological and clinical benefits to be gained in terms of reduced levels of anxiety and depression, faster recovery and reduced length of hospital stay. IN addition, the paucity of information that is available regarding the economic impact of providing patient information indicates that it might potentially be cost-effective to use the NHS to provide surgical patients with this type of information. This issue is likely to become increasingly important within the NHS as the emphasis on improving consumer information and satisfaction continues, and if it can indeed be shown not only to improve clinical outcome, but also to be cost-effective, there is likely to be great potential for expansion of such provision in the future.