Introduction: The prevalence of cataract surgeries
ranges from 7 to 12 million cases in 2000, 20 million
in 2010 and an estimation of 32 million cataract
surgeries annually by the year 2020 worldwide (WHO,
2015). Traditionally, the healthcare providers were
only able to give health education before the patient
is discharged from the healthcare setting while followup
can only be done when the patient comes for their
follow-up. But most of the patients will remain confused
or had forgotten about the post-operative care even
after receiving a comprehensive discharge preparation.
However, with the advancement of technologies in
this modern era, nurse-led telephone follow-up can be
considered as a tool to assist healthcare providers in the
follow-up care in Malaysia. On the same note, a private
eye specialist organisation with centres throughout
Malaysia, had taken the initiative to provide telephone
follow-up service for their patients with three main
objectives namely, to provide pre- and post-education
on cataract surgery, to detect early post cataract surgery
complications as well as to minimise anxiety among
their patients. However, till date no patient feedback
regarding the service was conducted.
Objective: The research objective for this study was to
determine patient’s level of satisfaction with the nurseled
telephone follow-up after cataract surgery at a private
eye specialist centre in Penang.
Method: A cross sectional quantitative descriptive study
design was used to study ninety post cataract patients in
a private hospital, Penang through universal sampling
method. A validated self-developed questionnaire based
on the three main objectives of the telephone follow-up
service was used for this study.
Results: Overall, the level of patient’s satisfaction with
nurse-led telephone follow-up after cataract surgery at
a private eye specialist centre in Penang was high (49.9
±4.85) especially for the health education provided
(4.18 ±0.21) followed by the effort to detect early
complications (4.16 ±0.12) and to minimise patients’
anxiety level (4.16 ±0.12).