Objective: To assess the amount and causes of patient contact with healthcare professionals after elective tonsillectomy.
Material and methods: This was a prospective study. All consecutive patients undergoing elective tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy in 1997 received a questionnaire concerning the post-discharge period.
Results: A total of 276 patients (93.6%) answered questions regarding post-discharge contact. After their discharge, 43.8% of patients contacted healthcare professionals. Pain was the leading indication for telephone contact, and hemorrhage for visits in person. Information given over the telephone was sufficient in 49.5% of cases. Telephone contact was followed by a visit in person in the case of hemorrhage in 88.9% of patients and in the case of pain in 34.1%. Contact was made most frequently in the older age groups.
Conclusions: Although the patients repeatedly received both written and oral information, nearly half of them still contacted healthcare professionals during the recovery period. Frequent post-tonsillectomy contact should be taken into account when the financial and personnel resources of day surgery units are evaluated. In order to reduce the amount of post-tonsillectomy contact with healthcare professionals, careful attention must be paid to the quality of patient counseling prior to discharge.